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SAINTS’ INHERITANCE; 

OR, 

THE WORLD TO COME. 

BY 

HENRY F. HILL. 



NEW YORK: 

PUBLISHED BY R. T. YOUNG, 

140 FULTON STREET. 


1852. 

St**. s%% L 

/k J^A ' rrs - 





Entered, according ‘o Act of Congress, in tne year 1852. by 
HENRY F. HILL, 

in the Clerk’s Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York. 


The Library 
of Congress 


WASHINGTON 


\ 


LC Control Number 



R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND ST.-RIXITYPEK, 
63 Vury Sired, A cut York. 


tmp96 025913 




































SI 




CONTENTS. 


Page 

Chap. I. Introductory, ....... 7 

II. The Millennium, ....... 20 

III. The Millennium, continued,. 25 

IY. Satan Loosed—Gog and Magog, .... 37 

Y. The Preaching of Peace a Snare to the Jewish 

Church, .50 

VL The Preaching of Peace a Snare to the Chris¬ 
tian Church, .58 

The Earth Promised to Christ as a Possession, . 72 

The Location of the Inheritance of the Saints, 83 

The Second Adam, .94 

The Earth Renewed,.103 

The Two Houses of Israel,.113 

The Test or Standand by which to try all Re¬ 
ligious Teaching, and the way to know the 

Truth,.134 

Christ to Reign Personally on the Earth, . 148 

When Christ Reigns on Earth his Subjects well 

be Immortal, .158 

XY. Christ’s Reign continued—his Kingdom to be 

without end, .166 

XYL Infants Lawful Heirs of the Inheritance, . . 179 

XVII. Ministry of Angels,. 193 

XYHL No Covenants or Promises to Jews more than 

to Gentiles, .219 

XTY. The House of Mansions above—the Holy City 

TO COME,.239 










PREFACE. 


This volume had its origin in a desire to awaken a lively 
and more devout interest in the study of the Bible; and in 
the fact that those deeply interesting Bible truths, made 
prominent in these pages, are now generally neglected, and 
in a great measure lost sight of by the church; which are 
considered of sufficient importance for bringing it before the 
public. 

The doctrine that this earth, instead of being annihilated, 
will be restored to its Eden or pristine glory, and become the 
habitation of the just, has never been considered heresy by 
the church; and although it is an old doctrine, made more 
or less prominent in every age, yet, because of its present 
neglect, care has been taken to prove, with a “ Thus saith the 
Lord,” all that has been advanced, which is the reason for 
the frequent quotations from the Bible found in this book. 

If the reading of these pages removes the cause of that 
complaint, of a want of interest in reading the Bible, so 
deeply felt and deplored by many Christians, the labor of 
writing them will be well rewarded. And should there be 
such an interest awakened, as to induce some able pen to do 
the subject justice, all will be accomplished that could be 
desired by the Author. 


Geneseo, N. Y., Oct. 1862 . 




THE 


SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

“ Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth.” 

John xvii. 17 . 

The glories of the inheritance of the saints, those 
great things in reserve for the people of God, the 
annals of eternity can alone fully unfold. Yet God 
has revealed concerning that heavenly kingdom 
much more than is generally taught or believed; 
and whatever he has been pleased to make known 
must be deeply interesting to all who hope to have 
part in that inheritance. 

The children of God have often been permitted 
to climb as high, morally, to view, through faith in 
those “ exceeding great and precious promises,” the 
glory of God in their inheritance, as Moses on 
Mount Pisgah, to view the land of Canaan. Those 
heavenly promises were given that our hearts might 
be sanctified by dwelling on them, that our affections 
might be won from those things that perish. 

“ But as it is written, eye hath not seen, nor ear 



8 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, 
the things which God hath prepared for them that 
love him.”—1 Cor. ii. 9. 

This text is sometimes quoted as proof that nothing 
has been revealed of that heavenly state, that here 
we have no conception of those immortal joys; but 
the context shows that in this verse the Apostle was 
speaking of the natural man, and the following verse 
teaches the very opposite, of the believer. “ But God 
hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the 
Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of 
God.” “But the natural man receiveth not the 
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness 
unto him; neither can he know them because they 
are spiritually discerned.” We see, therefore, that 
God does permit believers to discern in those pre¬ 
cious promises, at least, “ as through a glass darkly,” 
those joys which cluster around that heavenly coun¬ 
try, where they shall mingle with all the pure and 
the good who have ever graced the earth, beyond 
the time of toil, pain, and death. Thus he awakens 
anew the energies of the soul while they are engaged 
in his service, by the prospect of that great salvation. 

Speak of the heavenly state in general terms, and 
all are well pleased, perhaps the adversary would 
have no objection ; but be particular, make it a 
reality, talk of “ the redemption of the purchased 
possession,” tell them that “the whole creation 
groaneth, and travaileth in pain together until now,” 
—of “ the restitution of all things,”—of “ the new 
heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth right- 


INTRODUCTORY. 


9 


eousness,”—of the voice of the Eternal, saying, “ be¬ 
hold I make all things new,”—that “ there shall be no 
more curse,” and many object to the investigation ; 
they are satisfied with knowing that heaven is a 
good place. 

But the above truths, fully exhibited, make the 
inheritance of the saints a reality to the believer, a 
place that may be inhabited ; and a tangibility is 
given for his faith, making it truly “ the substance 
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 

Christians who neglect this subject, lose its ener¬ 
gizing influence, designed to nerve them while in 
probation, to urge them onward in their pilgrimage, 
to sanctify and prepare them for that abode. “It 
is given unto you to know the mysteries of the king¬ 
dom of heaven,” said Jesus to his disciples. Can it 
be that God has revealed that which is not worth 
the attention of his children? “All Scripture is 
given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for 
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction 
in righteousness; that the man of God may be per¬ 
fect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” 
Truly, “ secret things belong unto the Lord our God ; 
but those things which are revealed belong unto us, 
and to our children for ever.” 

As the knowledge of one science aids in obtaining 
that of another, so also the subjects which God has 
revealed are intimately connected, and mutually shed 
light on each other. 

“ Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is 
truth,” is the blessing which Jesus invoked on all 
1 * 


10 ' THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 

believers as he,was about to leave this world. Who¬ 
ever therefore neglects any of these truths, not only 
dishonors God, but robs his own’soul, especially if he 
neglects a subject about which God has revealed so 
much as concerning the one before us. 

Men are not indifferent in regard to a temporal 
inheritance ; and they are considered wise who gain 
all the information in their power concerning a 
country to which they would journey to make it 
their home for life. How deeply interested then 
should the Christian be with his everlasting inherit¬ 
ance ? In receiving it all his hopes are consum¬ 
mated. 

The faculties of the mind are not to perish with 
this mortal life ; should they, our identity would be 
lost. That indescribable love of home planted in the 
human heart by the Author of our being, rendering 
even trivial things around the homestead sacred and 
endearing, filling the very name of home with sweet¬ 
ness, will not only live, but increase in the resurrec¬ 
tion state, endearing and consecrating the blessings 
of that inheritance, filling with love and sweetness 
the eternal home of the redeemed. 

With what jealous care we guard those plants 
of beauty, and trees of ornament, which perhaps 
called the united counsel of the family to arrange 
in setting : with pleasure we nourish them ; our joys 
increase with their growth ; when they bud, blossom, 
and spread forth their beauty and their fragrance, 
our pleasures are still heightened, and the inclosure 
becomes an Eden where no careless foot may tread, 


INTRODUCTORY. 


11 


where no destroyer may enter. What sacred joy 
arises in the family as under their fostering care 
they see the homestead improve, becoming more and 
more beautiful. 

Who can walk out on this earth of ours in the 
spring-time of her beauty, with her carpet of green 
under his feet, with her vegetation arrayed in its 
royal garments, and inhale the sweetness of her 
flowers, without rejoicing with gratitude in the work 
of the Author ? 

But when we learn in the word of God that 
although thus beautiful, it is greatly degenerated 
from its pristine glory, that it is full of corruption, 
and groaning under the curse of sin, as well as its 
inhabitants; and that it is doomed to death, to be 
burned ; our joy is turned to sorrow ; but when we 
learn still more by those “ precious promises,” that 
its death is not eternal; that Jesus, the second 
Adam, has “ purchased the possession,” and promised 
for it a “ redemption,” a “ restitution,” when he will 
make it as in its original beauty, “ when the morning 
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy ;” even as much more glorious as the second 
Adam is greater and more glorious than the first. 
And still farther ; when we learn that those to whom 
it was originally given, who have been adopted into 
the family of the second Adam, are under him to 
have it again, when he shall raise them from the 
dead, and that their inheritance shall put on such 
excellent beauty under his fostering care, when he 
shall “make the place of his feet glorious,” our 


12 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


sorrow is turned again to rejoicing, will not the 
holy family of the second Adam in that day shout 
for joy still more loudly than the sons of God 
at its creation ? 

If so much love and pleasure cluster around 
our temporal home, and such beauty shines in this 
corrupted earth, what will be our joy when He shall 
set his hand again to beautify the earth, and shall 
make it our everlasting inheritance ; shedding uni¬ 
versal and unfading beauty throughout the renovated 
world. “ For ye shall go out with joy ; and be led 
forth with peace : the mountains and the hills shall 
break forth before you into singing, and all the trees 
of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the 
thorn shall come up the fir-tree, instead of the brier 
shall come up the myrtle-tree : and it shall be to the 
Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall 
not be cut off. 77 This is no fancy sketch, but a part 
of that word of prophecy, of which Jesus said, “ Not 
one jot or tittle shall in any wise fail. 77 In accom¬ 
plishing which he will obliterate every trace of the 
fall, so that nothing shall hurt or destroy in all 
God 7 s holy mountain. “ The wilderness and the 
solitary place shall be glad for them ; and the desert 
shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall 
blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and 
singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto 
it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall 
see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our 
God. 77 

The object of our Lord 7 s incarnation was to wrest 


INTRODUCTORY. 


13 


from the “Prince of Darkness” the kingship of this 
world ; to cast him out of the possession ; to take 
the prey from the mighty, and to deliver man the 
captive, and to restore to him that inheritance 
which he lost by the fall. But it is not yet accom¬ 
plished. Truly, “ He was delivered for our offences, 
and raised again for our justification. Therefore, 
being justified by faith, we have peace with God 
through our Lord Jesus Christ.” He has effected 
that much towards our redemption, and he has given 
an “ Earnest,” or a Pledge for the balance. The con¬ 
sequences of sin are not yet removed. The believer 
is yet under the sentence of death. The ashes of the 
saints and martyrs are still mingling in the dust, and 
their redemption will not be completed till he brings 
them soul and body into that inheritance. And now 
if he redeem not the pledge, the Christian’s hope will 
never be consummated ; therefore we stand by faith, 
and if we die, we must die in the faith, if our hope is 
ever consummated. But he who has promised is able 
to fulfil, says the Apostle. “ For I know whom I 
have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to 
keep that which I have committed unto him against 
that day.” The Pledge which he has given is truly 
worthy of Him who gave it. “ In whom ye also 
trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the 
gospel of your salvation : in whom after that ye 
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of 
promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance 
until the redemption of the purchased possession, 
unto the praise of his glory,” Eph. i. 13,14. Our 


14 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


Earnest then, or Pledge, is, that Holy Spirit of pro¬ 
mise, the promised Comforter. Said Jesus, “ If I go 
away I will send you the Comforter.” When we 
believe, we are sealed with that promised Holy 
Spirit, who is our Earnest or Pledge till the redemp¬ 
tion of the purchased possession. What an Earnest 
He has given ! Sealed with the signet of Heaven ; 
by the sanctifying power of the Holy Ghost; who is 
given as our Earnest; the inheritance is sure. 
“ Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is 
none of his,” says the Apostle. “ But if the Spirit 
of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell 
in you, he. that raised up Christ from the dead shall 
also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit which 
dwelleth in you.” That Earnest, the Holy Spirit 
given, is to quicken, to make alive, to raise us from 
the dead, and beautify us with salvation, that we 
may take possession of our inheritance. 

There is so much power in the glory of that 
heavenly country when only seen as “ through a 
glass darkly,” or, by faith, that the highest honor 
of kings and all their glory fades before it. “ By 
faith Moses, when he had come to years, refused to 
be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter ; choosing 
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God 
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; 
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than 
the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the 
recompense of the reward.” 

We should love God for what he is ; because he is 
pure, holy, just, and good ; but where do we see his 


INTRODUCTORY. 


15 


goodness as in our redemption, and the redemption 
of our inheritance through the death and suffering 
of his only begotten Son ? “ Or despisest thou the 

riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and long- 
suffering, not knowing that the goodness of God 
leadeth thee to repentance ? ” 

If we lose the knowledge of our inheritance, we 
are like a traveller who has lost his way : he knows 
he has a home, but where he cannot tell; he wearies 
himself on the dark mountains of uncertainty, or he 
forgets his country and his home and amuses himself 
in a strange land with the passing events. But the 
Christian who has his eye of faith firmly fixed, his 
treasure being there, his affections are there, and the 
way he knows : “I am the Way,” says Christ: the 
very progress he makes, gives him energy. As with 
the Pilgrim fathers : “ they that say such things, 
declare plainly that they seek a country. And if 
they had been mindful of that country from whence 
they came out, they might have had opportunity to 
have returned. But now, they desire a better country, 
that is, an heavenly.” 

Many excellent men whom the Church delights to 
honor, have given this subject that prominence its 
importance demands, and many ministers still claim 
to hold that this earth will be renewed and become 
the habitation of the saints, but excuse themselves 
from teaching it. Therefore the subject should 
claim more attention till it stands again in its 
proper place in Christian theology. 

The late Dr. Chalmers has a sermon on the new 


16 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


heavens and the new earth, in which he says : “A 
great step is gained simply by dissolving the alliance 
that exists in the minds of many between the two 
ideas of sin and materialism ; or proving, that when 
once sin is done away, it consists with all we know 
of God’s administration, that materialism shall be 
perpetuated in the full bloom and vigor of immor¬ 
tality. It altogether holds out a warmer and more 
alluring picture of the elysium that awaits us, when 
told that there will be beauty to delight the eye ; 
and music to regale the ear ; and the comfort that 
springs from all the charities of intercourse between 
man and man, holding converse as they do on earth, 
and gladdening each other with the benignant smiles 
that play on the human countenance, or the accents 
of kindness that fall in soft and soothing melody 
from the human voice. There is much of the inno¬ 
cent and much of the inspiring, and much to affect 
and elevate the heart, in the scenes and the contem¬ 
plations of materialism—and we do hail the infor¬ 
mation .that after the dissolution of its 

present framework, it will again be varied and 
decked out anew in all the graces of its unfading 
verdure, and of its unbounded variety—that in 
addition to our direct and personal view of the 
Deity, when he comes down to tabernacle with men, 
we shall also have the reflection of him in a lovely 
mirror of his own workmanship—and that instead 
of being translated to some abode of dimness and 
of mystery, so remote from human experience, as to 
be beyond all comprehension, we shall walk for ever 



INTRODUCTORY. 


IT 


in a land replenished with those sensible delights 
and those sensible glories, which, we doubt not, will 
be most properly scattered over ‘ the new heavens 
and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.’ 

“ We are now walking on a terrestrial surface, 
not more compact, perhaps, than the one we shall 
hereafter walk upon, and are now wearing terrestrial 
bodies, not firmer and more solid, perhaps, than 
those we shall hereafter wear. 

“ There will be a firm earth, as we have at present, 
and a heaven stretched over it, as we have at 
present ; and it is not by the absence of sin, that 
the abode of immortality will be characterized. 
There will both be heavens and earth, it would 
appear, in the next great administration—and with 
this specialty to mark it from the present one, that 
it will be heavens and an earth, * wherein dwelleth 
righteousness.’ ”—Dr. Chalmers's Works , v. 7, pp. 291 
to 293, N. Y. ed., 1842. 

Calvin, in his “ Institutes,” says, “ I expect with 
Paul, a reparation of all the evils caused by sin, for 
which he represents the creatures as groaning and 
travailing.” 

John Knox, speaking of the reformation of the 
world, says, it “ never was, nor yet shall be, till the 
righteous King and Judge appear for the restora¬ 
tion of all things.” 

Bunyan says, “ none ever saw this world as it was 
in its first creation but Adam and his wife ; neither 
will any see it until the manifestation of the children 
of God ; i. e. until the redemption or resurrection 
of the saints.” 


18 THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 

The Rev. John Cumming, D.D., of England, 
speaking of the glory of the future state says : “ Is 
that sixtieth chapter of Isaiah a poet’s dream ? 
Is it a mere transcendental prediction ? I believe 
these glories, these literal glories, will be in that 
future state. I do not believe there is anything in a 
beautiful flower inherently evil ; or that there is 
any iniquity in a brilliant gem; or that there is 
anything of God’s curse inseparably from a precious 
diamond. All this earth wants is, not to have its 
matter annihilated, or transformed into something 
airy, visionary, spiritualized; but to have sin and 
its corrosive poison entirely and utterly purged 
from it, and to have the consecrating footsteps of 
the King of kings upon its bosom, and then its 
deserts shall rejoice, and its solitary places shall 
blossom as the rose.” 

The importance of this subject does not appear in 
the above reasons only, neither because of the 
sanctifying influence of this truth on the heart, 
nor because it sheds light upon other important 
truth, nor because the Christian traveller would be 
lost with the knowledge only that he had a home 
and knew not where ; but more especially because 
the church has once stumbled and been rejected of 
God, the result of having lost sight of her inherit¬ 
ance, as the sequel, we think, will show. But 
simply the belief or disbelief in the true location 
of the saints’ inheritance cannot affect the heart 
of any man for good or evil. True, neither to 
believe that there is one God, which is a part of 


INTRODUCTORY. 


19 


the Christian’s faith, and absolutely necessary ; still 
the simple belief will not make the heart better or 
worse. Says the apostle James, “ thou believest that 
there is one God; thou dost well, the devils also 
believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, 0 vain 
man, that faith without works is dead ? ” 

The misunderstanding of those promises which 
represent the earth in such a beautified and glorious 
state, when “ nothing shall hurt or destroy in all 
God’s holy mountain,” when “the inhabitant shall 
not say, I am sick,” applicable only to the heavenly 
state, has been the cause of their being applied to 
this mortal life, where they can never be fulfilled. 
By which means the church has embraced the hope 
that she will enjoy a millennial day of peace and 
glory during the time of her probation; the time 
allotted for her warfare and trials, in this sin-polluted 
state of the earth, groaning under the curse. 

True, there is to be on the earth a millennial day 
for the church. “There remaineth a rest to the 
people of God,” or as the margin reads, “ a keeping 
of a Sabbath,” the type of which is found in the 
seventh day rest, sanctified and hallowed by the 
Creator, after the six days’ work of the creation. 
The doctrine has been held and taught more or less • 
confidently in all ages of the church, and it is the 
first great blessing in reserve for the saints, as an 
introductory to their final, glorious, and everlasting 
inheritance. Therefore, the Millennium shall be first 
considered in the following pages. 


CHAPTER II. 


THE MILLENNIUM. 

“The people were in expectation, and all men mused in their 
hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, or not.”— Luke iii. 15. 

The opinion that there will be a millennium, and 
that it is about to dawn upon the world, is now as 
prevalent throughout Christendom as was the belief 
that the Messiah was about to make his appearance 
in the days of John the Baptist, or of good old 
Simeon, who had got the witness that he should not 
die till he had seen the Lord’s Anointed. And pro¬ 
bably no less true the one than the other. 

That delightful day, the heavenly and soul-cheering 
time, the glorious and blessed restitution, is now so 
inwoven in the heart of the church, that it not only 
fires up the old man “ while leaning upon his staff” 
as he worships, but the “ young men who are strong 
in the Lord,” have the spirit of their worship .quick¬ 
ened as they catch the melody of the holy theme. 
Even the children of the church, or the young con¬ 
verts, unite, while the church prays ardently for 
“ The set time to favor Zion to come; when the 
heathen shall be given to his Son for an inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for a possession ; 
when the sword shall be beat into the ploughshare, 
and the spear into the pruning-hook, and nation shall 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


21 


not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more ; and he shall reign from the 
river to the ends of the earth; and all shall know 
the Lord from the least to the greatest; for the 
knowledge of the glory of God shall fill the earth as 
the waters fill the great deep.” 

Thus prays the church at the public ministry of 
the word, and in her conference meetings—at the 
monthly concert of prayer, and in her church meet¬ 
ings—at her covenant, and her class meetings—at 
the family altar and in the closet. The millennium is 
the theme of her orators at the great gatherings of 
the church. 

The overthrow of monarchies, and the establishing 
of republics, are pointed to by the Christian republi¬ 
can as the dawning of the better day. The Evan¬ 
gelical Alliance, the World’s Peace Convention, the 
World’s Fair, as great social gatherings of the 
nations, are looked to with anxious eye as harbingers 
of the millennium. The opening of new fields in 
heathen lands for the gospel, and great revivals 
of religion, are hailed as its morning rays. “And 
as the people were in expectation, and all men mused 
in their hearts of John, whether he were the Christ, 
or not,” so now there is a universal expectation of a 
better day about to dawn on the world. The 
general diffusion of knowledge and the rapid pro¬ 
gress of the arts and sciences, have awakened a 
pleasing hope of glory in the development of the 
powers of the human mind, beyond the stretch of the 
imagination to tell how great. The spread of know- 


22 


THE SAINTS 5 INHERITANCE. 


ledge, and especially of human rights through the 
world, causing the general struggle of the nations 
for liberty, inspires political men with the expecta¬ 
tion that the world is on the eve of its political 
greatness, when all men will enjoy those “ inalien¬ 
able rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi¬ 
ness. 55 

That this earth is destined to a glorious and 
blessed state, is the general testimony of the inspired 
writers. God has sworn by Himself, saying, “ As 
surely as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the 
glory of the Lord, 55 and he has specified a special 
thousand years during which the blessed, and the 
holy, and they only, shall live and reign with 
Christ; and it is a sufficient guarantee to the church 
that there will be a millennium. God has spoken it, 
and will perform it in due time. Rev. xx. 4, 6. 

But the great mass who are looking, and even 
praying for it, may be as sadly disappointed as the 
Jewish church and the world were at the coming of 
the Messiah. The Jewish church had been praying 
for a long time for the Redeemer “ to come to 
Zion. 55 Even as far back as the days of king 
Hezekiah, when God said to him, “ Set thine house 
in order, for thou shalt die, 55 his great complaint was 
because he should not live to see Christ. Isaiah 
xxxviii. 10, 11. “I said in the cutting off of my 
days, I shall go to the gates of the grave : I am 
deprived of the residue of my years, I said, I shall 
not see the Lord, even the Lord in the land of the 
living. 55 His pleading was accepted, his days were 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


23 


extended fifteen years. Kings and priests, prophets, 
and holy men, have desired to see his day. 

The promise made to our first parents, that the seed 
of the woman should bruise the serpent’s head, had 
been renewed to Abraham, and through his descend¬ 
ants had spread more or less among all nations ; and 
in proportion to the light the expectation was uni¬ 
versal, that the great Redeemer of mankind was about 
to come. “The wise men of the east” had their 
attention drawn to the subject, and were on the look¬ 
out. They learned that God had announced the birth 
of the long expected Messiah in his providence, by 
the appearance of a new and wonderful star. “ And 
lo the star which they saw in the east went before 
them, till it came and stood over where the young 
child was.” The necessity of a Redeemer was so 
absolute, the expectation was so universal, and so 
ardent was the desire of the whole world, that one of 
the titles given him by Inspiration was, “ The Desire 
of all Nations.” And when he came he was all they 
could have desired ; the very one they needed. Had 
the world assembled her wise men to have asked of 
Heaven some great favor, and had they raised their 
imaginations to the highest, they could not have 
asked an equal; nor could the Eternal Father have 
bestowed a greater. 

But when the greatly desired Messiah came, did 
they receive him as their Saviour? No! they were 
sadly disappointed in him. He was to them as a 
- root out of dry ground. He had no form or come¬ 
liness, and when they saw him there was no beauty 


24 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


that they should desire him. He was despised and 
rejected of men. a man of sorrows and acquainted 
with grief; and they hid as it were their faces from 
him ; he was despised and they esteemed him not.” 
Even the church who had prayed so ardently for him 
to come, rejected him. “ He came to his own, and his 
own received him not.” They rejected and crucified 
him, saying, “ His blood be on us, and on our chil¬ 
dren.” How Heaven-daring their prayer! How 
terrible its fulfilment on that devoted race ! 

As there was a universal expectation of Christ’s 
coming just previous to his advent, so there is now an 
equal expectation of a Millennium about to dawn upon 
the world. But it is to be feared that the disappoint¬ 
ment will be as much more dreadful than in the days 
of the Saviour, as the light and privilege of this age 
are superior. 

It will be shown in its place, that the first step in 
error which led the Jewish church to reject her long 
prayed, for Messiah, was the losing sight of the true 
inheritance; but first the Millennium will be more 
fully considered. “ I counsel thee,” says Jesus, “ to 
anoint thine eyes with eye-salve that thou mayest 
see.” 


CHAPTER III. 


THE MILLENNIUM CONTINUED. 

“ And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of 
the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold 
on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and 
bound him a thousand years. And cast him into the bottomless pit, 
and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the 
nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled; and 
after that he must be loosed a little season. And I saw thrones, and 
they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw 
the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and 
for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, 
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their fore¬ 
heads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a 
thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the 
thousand years were finished.” Rev. xx. 1-5. 

The above, with the five verses which follow in 
this twentieth chapter of Revelation, is the only por¬ 
tion in God’s word which directly teaches a millen¬ 
nium, or a special thousand years’ reign for Christ and 
his people. Christians generally are agreed as to 
the fact, that a very holy and blessed state is yet to 
exist upon this earth, called the Millennium, because 
a thousand ^ears is specified. And the only impor¬ 
tant question between those who believe in the mil¬ 
lennial reign to come, is, whether it is to be in proba¬ 
tion, introduced by the spread of the gospel till the 
whole world is converted ; or, to be in the immortal 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


state, introduced by the advent of Christ, and the 
resurrection of the righteous dead, and restitution of 
the earth. 

As this is the only scripture which specifies a spe¬ 
cial thousand years 7 reign for Christ and the right¬ 
eous, all agree that its true meaning reveals the 
nature of that coming millennial glory. Therefore 
from the different interpretations of this scripture 
has originated the division respecting the character 
of that reign. 

One class of interpreters believe this language to 
be highly symbolical, designed to teach that there 
will be a glorious revival of religion, when all the 
graces of the martyrs will be revived, and all the 
inhabitants of the earth will be converted, or so 
generally brought under the influence of the gospel 
that the church will triumph gloriously over all 
her foes ; and that Christ will reign, by the Spirit, 
in the hearts of his people for a thousand years, 
during which multitudes, more than all that have 
been lost, will be saved ; so that Christ, in numbers 
saved, will obtain a great victory over the Adver¬ 
sary. 

The other class believe this portion of scripture 
designed to teach, with other things, the resurrection 
of the righteous dead, a thousand years previous to 
the resurrection of the wicked, during which Christ 
will reign personally with his saints. 

Believing the latter exposition correct, it will be 
our object to show that the context sustains it; and 
that other scripture on this subject harmonize with it. 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


27 


The great error, generally, in understanding God’s 
word has been in supposing it something wonderful 
and mysterious; coming from so high a source, we 
are disposed to think it above our comprehension. 
The simplicity of the gospel, or God’s truth, has 
often proved a stumbling-block. Though there is a 
depth in his word unfathomable, yet there is a 
simplicity which brings it within the reach of the 
most feeble mind. 

Those learned expositors who have understood 
this scripture as a symbolical representation, having 
given such a variety of expositions, and some of 
them having changed their views, and still express 
them very positively, show that the wisdom even 
of the wise has failed. That the language is to be 
understood in part or wholly as symbolical is evi¬ 
dent ; the great chain and key in the angel’s hand 
should not be understood literally. Being satisfied 
that the language was symbolical, instead of search¬ 
ing to see whether God had explained it, they have 
gone on and given an exposition. The wildest 
expositions of God’s word which men have been 
guilty of giving are of those parables, visions, and 
symbols, which God had already explained. 

The reader will notice in the text that we have 
omitted the last clause of the fifth verse, which is the 
commencement of the exposition that Inspiration has 
given of this subject. Those persons, who for con¬ 
venience’s sake divided the Bible into chapters and 
verses, have by so doing made it in some places 
rather obscure. Read the following paragraph, or 


28 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


five verses, in connexion with the text, and it will 
be seen that God has given an explanation to the 
subject. The Revelator having described what he 
saw. then declares in literal language the meaning. 

“ This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy 
is he that has part in the first resurrection : on such 
the second death hath no power, but they shall be 
priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with 
him a thousand years. And when the thousand 
years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his 
prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which 
are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and 
Magog, to gather them together to battle: the 
number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And 
they went up on the breadth of the earth, and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
beloved city: and fire came down from God out of 
heaven, and devoured them. And the devil that 
deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and 
brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, 
and shall be tormented day and night for ever and 
ever.” 

Thus Inspiration has given a concise exposition of 
these five verses, divesting-them of that mysticism 
which a multitude of expositions has cast over 
them, rendering them sufficiently plain, so that there 
needs be no misunderstanding of them. And it will 
be easy to show that thus understood, they harmo¬ 
nize with the plain teaching of God’s word on this 
subject. Similar examples are frequently found in 
the book of Revelation, where an explanation imme- 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


29 


diately follows the description of a vision. To adopt 
such exposition is always safe j and no uninspired 
exposition, however wise and good the author, can 
set it aside. 

History teaches that the church, previous to the 
days of Dr.Whitby (1716) generally believed that the 
millennium would be introduced by the resurrection 
of the righteous dead, and personal reign of Christ; 
but Whitby wrote largely on the millennium, and so 
explained this scripture as to make it teach that the 
millennium would be introduced by the conversion 
of the world. Since that time many expositors have 
adopted similar views ; the theory is so pleasing to 
all that few have been disposed to call it in question. 
In sustaining the doctrine the scene which John saw 
and described, and the exposition he gave, have been 
connected together, and the whole has been symbol¬ 
ized. Some have gone so far as to symbolize the 
time also, making each day in the thousand years 
stand as a symbol of a year, extending the time of 
the reign to three hundred and sixty-five thousand 
years, or three hundred and sixty-five millenniums. 
Some of their expositions have been more difficult to 
understand than the text itself.* 


* “ It is well known that Rev. Thomas Scott, the celebrated com¬ 
mentator on the Bible, published an edition of Runyan’s ‘ Progress,’ 
with expository notes. A copy of this work he benevolently 
presented to one of his poor parishioners. Meeting him soon after, 
Mr. Scott inquired whether he had read it. The reply was, ‘Yes, 
sir.’ ‘Do you think you understand it?’ ‘Oh, yes, sir,’ was the 
answer; * and I hope before long to understand the notes.* ” 


30 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


Quite too much of a license to take with the word 
of Him who said, “ For I testify unto every man that 
heareth the word of the prophecy of this book, if any 
man shall add unto these things, God shall add the 
plagues that are written in this book. And if any 
man shall take away from the words of the book of 
this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of 
the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from 
the things which are written in this book/ 7 Rev. xxii. 
18, 19. 

Living prophets with the Revelator have ceased 
from the church, but in their place God has given 
the prophecy of the Book of Revelation, with other 
unfulfilled prophecies, constantly being fulfilled, a 
living miracle of the truth of the Holy Bible ; and 
lest these prophecies should be treated as were the 
prophets while alive, God has set this terrible 
threatening in the closing chapter of his word. 

The prophets were tempted to induce them to 
bring messages of peace, and they were persecuted 
because they foretold the opposite. “ And the mes¬ 
senger that was gone to call Micaiah spake unto him, 
saying, Behold now, the words of the prophets (false 
prophets) declare good unto the king with one 
mouth: let thy word, I pray thee, be like the word 
of one of them, and speak that which is good/ 7 
1 Kings xxii. 13. But no, he was faithful, and 
informed the king of the calamity which awaited 
him and his people. The consequence was that a 
popular prophet smites him, and the king orders him 
back to prison to be fed with the bread and water of 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


31 


affliction. When God sent Jeremiah, who was 
greatly persecuted, to inform the church that, “ When 
they fast, I will not hear their cry ; and when they 
offer burnt-offering and an oblation, I will not 
accept them ; but I will consume them by the sword, 
and by the famine, and by the pestilence:” he 
replies, “ Ah Lord God! behold the prophets say 
unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall 
ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in 
this place,” Jer. xiv. 12, 13. 

Though the prophets could not be prevailed on to 
proclaim peace for the church in probation, as will 
be more fully shown ; yet their prophecies have been 
so symbolized and explained as to make them teach 
such a time. The plain teaching of the apostle John 
does not warrant the popular exposition of his 
prophecy, that the church will triumph in the last 
days. He says, “ Little children, it is the last time : 
and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even 
now are there many antichrists ; whereby we know 
that it is the last time,” 1 John ii. 18. How does 
the beloved apostle know that “ it is the last time ?” 
Is it because he sees the millennial glory rising upon 
the world in the spread of the gospel ? No ; but 
because “ there were many antichrists ; whereby we 
know that it is the last time.” It was not the 
increase of holiness but the multiplying of wicked¬ 
ness, which was an evidence to the venerable apostle 
that the day of probation for man was passing into 
its evening shades. This plain declaration of the 
apostle cannot be reconciled with a millennial reign 
in probation. 


82 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


The Holy Spirit revealed to the prophets the same 
great truth taught in the text, that the faithful would 
obtain part in the first resurrection, the hope of which 
sustained the Old Testament saints during even this 
extreme sufferings. “ They were stoned, they were 
sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the 
sword : they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, 
and in dens and caves of the earth.” And “ others 
had trials of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, 
moreover, of bonds and imprisonment.” And “ women 
received their dead raised to life again ; and others 
were tortured not accepting deliverance ; that they 
might obtain a better resurrectiona part in the 
first resurrection. “ Blessed and holy is he that hath 
part in the first resurrection, on such the second death 
hath no power.” The history of the church shows 
that it was this precious truth, the hope of a part in 
the first resurrection, founded especially on the fulfil¬ 
ment of this scripture, which enabled the Christian 
martyrs to endure the flame, and even covet a mar¬ 
tyr’s death. 

There is a wide difference between the two doc¬ 
trines claimed to be deduced from this scripture, 
while the one holds out the prospect of great pros¬ 
perity to the world, and triumph to the church in 
probation ; the other holds out sudden judgment to 
the world, and the resurrection and deliverance of 
the people of God from their last enemy, death, and 
of Christ’s personal reign with his people upon the 
renewed earth. 

The plain exposition which Inspiration has given 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


33 


of the text, should satisfy every inquirer after 
truth on this subject; but as the hope of triumphant 
victory, of glory and honor for the church, is so 
strongly entertained by many, we add to this testi¬ 
mony the plain teaching of the apostles, and of Him 
who spake as never man spake, concerning which 
there will be no question. 

Our Lord informs his followers that instead of 
honor in this world they should have dishonor ; that 
their names should be cast out as evil. Instead of 
triumph the godly man should be persecuted. “ Yea,” 
says the apostle, “ and all that will live godly shall 
suffer persecution.” Who will persecute the godly 
man when all are blessed and holy ? Jesus, the great 
Head of the church, while in the flesh was in a 
state of humiliation, affliction, and suffering : “ A man 
of sorrows and acquainted with grief.” Shall the 
servant be above his master ? He said that it wa« 
sufficient for the servant if he be as his master.” 
Ii^tead of glory and honor in this world he foretold 
trials, persecutions, and suffering for his people, more 
or less severe during all probation. In Matt, xxiv., 
Luke xxi., we have a record of the “ sure word of pro¬ 
phecy” from his own lips ; beginning with his day, and 
extending through the present dispensation, till he 
comes again and gathers “his elect from the four 
winds,” without giving a hint that the church will 
triumph, or of a millennial reign during the whole 
time. But on the contrary, a time of trouble for his 
people, of wars and rumors of wars, of evils in the 
church and out of the church, of the love of many 
2 * 


34 the saints’ inheritance. 

waxing cold, trials in tile church, of false prophets, 
of false teachers, deceiving, if it were possible, even 
the very elect; but no sign of a triumph for the 
church, of millennial glory. The Lord Jesus has 
declared to the world that following him and bearing 
the cross are inseparably connected ; that they might 
expect scoffing, persecution, and death; no exemp¬ 
tion, no relief. “ In the world ye shall have tribula¬ 
tion.” He held out no flattering prospects to lure a 
soldier to the Cross; no numerous popular church 
destined to triumph in the world. He would have 
them know what lies before them ; such treatment as 
he met with, that they might not enlist without 
counting the cost, that having enlisted they might go 
onward to the end, willing to meet even death. 
Where in the history of the church can an example 
be found, since Cain slew Abel for his piety, of a 
godly man who has not suffered persecution or 
extreme trials ? Do you point to some honored men 
whose piety and praise is in the mouth of every one? 
Christ answers, “ Wo unto you, when all men shall 
speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the 
false prophets.” Luke vi. 26. “ If the master of the 
house was called Beelzebub, what will they not call 
his servants ?” Probation is the time of suffering for 
the church, the glory is to follow : “ If we suffer with 
him we shall also reign with him.” 

The parable of the tares in the field clearly teaches 
that the wicked and righteous will mingle together 
till the end of the world. “ Let both grow together 
until the harvest.” And in explaining he said, “ He 


THE MILLENNIUM. 


35 


that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; the field 
is the world; the good seed are the children of the 
kingdom ; but the tares are the children of the wicked 
one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil ; the 
harvest is the end of the world ; and the reapers are 
the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and 
burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of this 
world. The Son of Man shall send forth his angels, 
and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things 
that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall 
cast them into a furnace of fire.” 

This parable begins with the gospel dispensation 
and goes down to its close, till the end of the world, 
or age ; and in passing over its history, he has given 
no hint of a triumph for the church ; his exposition 
has even excluded from probationary time all pros¬ 
pect of such a millennium as promised in the text, 
fixing that blessed day after probation, after the 
earth, the kingdom, has been cleansed, “ Then shall the 
righteous shine forth in the kingdom of their Father 
as the sun.” Thus clearly does the teaching of Christ 
correspond with the explanation which the Revelator 
has given of the text; both alike giving all the right¬ 
eous who have ever lived a part in that blessed reign.' 
Some have concluded, in view of the explanation 
which Christ gave of this parable, that there will be 
a few wicked persons left during the millennium. 
Such an idea is inconsistent with the description 
Inspiration has given of that day. “ Blessed and holy. . 
is he who hath part in the first resurrection ; on such 
the second death hath no power ; but they shall be ’ 


36 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with 
him a thousand years.” 

No promise can be more sure, than that all who 
have part in that millennial reign will escape the 
seeond death ; not one exception. 


CHAPTER IV. 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years 
were finished. Rev. xx. 5. 

Many important questions rush on the mind at this 
stage of the subject. “ And no marvel; for Satan 
himself is transformed into an angel of lightby 
which he would ensnare the church and the world 
with the hope of glory, honor, and peace, for the 
church of Christ during the time allotted for her suf¬ 
fering and trial. Glory, where her Lord was spit on! 
Honor, where he was crowned with thorns ! Peace, 
where he was crucified! Triumph, during the time 
appointed by her Lord for the Bride to fast till the 
Bridegroom returns I Through such a hope this sub¬ 
ject has been brought into great obscurity. 

But with the cheering promise found in the first 
verse of the book of Revelation, “ The revelation of 
Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto 
his servants things which must shortly come to pass,” 
and invoking the aid of Him who revealed these 
overwhelming truths to John, that they might be 
made known to the servants of God, we will endea¬ 
vor to show that these truths are easily compre¬ 
hended. 

First, we are asked with emphasis, who are the Gog 


88 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


and Magog, whom Satan gathers to the great battle 
after the thousand years are finished? Does he 
go among the holy, on whom the second death has no 
power ? By no means ; the text informs us who they 
are ; “ But the rest of the dead lived not again till 
the thousand years were finished.” All the pure, the 
good, the holy, rise in the first resurrection on whom 
the second death has no power ; “ But the rest of the 
dead/ 7 the wicked, the impure, and unholy, rise not 
till after the thousand years are finished. Then, 
simultaneously. Satan is loosed when God shall raise 
the wicked “unto the resurrection of damnation. 77 
But shall they have a battle with the saints? No ! 
they have no battle. He goes out to deceive them ; 
he promises them a battle with the saints, but as usual 
he deceives them. God’s design is the final judg¬ 
ment, and its execution on them, as the context shows ; 
“ And they went up on the breadth of the earth and 
compassed the camp of the saints about, and the 
beloved city ; and fire came down from God out of 
heaven and devoured them, and the devil that 
deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brim¬ 
stone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and 
shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever. 77 

But will Satan be employed to gather them? We 
would ask who is a more fit subject for the direful 
work than he who led them captive at his will in all 
their diabolical life on earth? Those holy angels, 
ministering spirits, who minister to the heirs of sal¬ 
vation during their life of humiliation, suffering, and 
trial on earth, will be commissioned to gather the 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


39 


elect. There is a fitness in it, such as becometh Him 
who doeth his pleasure in heaven and earth. Shall 
not the wrath of devils praise Him as well as men ? 
“ And the remainder he will restrain. 77 

After having been deceived by Satan all their life, 
and having died without God and hope, and having 
also endured the horrors of their coming punishment, 
can he now deceive them ? So the word teaches, and 
it is in accordance with the history of sin on earth. 

Transgressions continued weaken our powers to 
resist sin, as a resistance of temptation strengthens 
our virtues. At the commencement of crime the 
youth starts back horror-struck ; but by continuance 
he is soon hardened. Although he feels in part the 
evils of his course he still moves on with rapid 
strides. Tell him that he is on the course to those 
still blacker crimes of midnight; amazed, he cries, 
“ Am I a dog that I should do so base a thing ! 77 Yet 
he passes on an easy victim, and still more easy with 
quicker step, till far deeper than you warned him, he 
plunges into the blackest crime. Death does not 
effect any moral change ; he will come up in the 
resurrection the same depraved easy captive, and will 
ever be a servant of him whom he obeyed on earth. 
And those legions of the Gog and Magog know no 
other leader than the Prince of darkness. 

If the reader is on that downward course of sin 
let him fear to take another step, and seek at once for 
aid of Him who alone can save. 

The prophet Isaiah gives a description of the same 
scene. He informs us that the wicked shall surely 


40 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


gather against God's people, while they are dwelling 
safely in that beloved city ; so beautifully and glori¬ 
ously adorned. He does not inform us who gathers 
them, only the fact that they gather against God’s 
people, but not by the Lord. It is an address to the 
church.—Isaiah liv. 11-15j IT. 

“Oh thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not 
comforted! behold, I will lay thy stones with fair 
colors, and lay thy foundations with sapphires. And 
I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of 
carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones. 
And all thy children shall be taught of the Lord ; 
and great shall be the peace of thy children. In 
righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt 
be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear : and 
from terror ; for it shall not come near thee. Behold, 
they shall surely gather together, but not by me: 
whosoever shall gather together against thee shall 
fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed against 
thee shall prosper ; and every tongue that shall rise 
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is 
the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their 
righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” Thus by 
the prophet, the afflicted church “ tossed with 
tempest and not comforted,” during all her probation, 
God promises a holy city which has foundations of 
sapphires, adorned with unfading beauty and glory, 
and that they shall dwell in it in safety, being no 
more oppressed ; terror and fear shall not disturb 
them; though their enemies shall surely gather 
against them, “ but not by me,” saith God. By whom 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


41 


then shall they be gathered ? John says, Satan shall 
gather them. But at that time God’s people shall 
not fear, for Christ in person is in the camp of the 
saints. Associated with him, “ thou shalt” this wicked 
host of Gog and Magog “in judgment condemn.” 
Paul says, “Do ye not know that the saints shall 
judge the world ?” “ All this honor have thy saints,” 
says the Psalmist. “And I saw thrones and they 
sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them,” 
says John. “ Thou shalt be far from oppression ; for 
thou shalt not fear ; and from terror ; for it shall not 
come near thee ;—every tongue that shall rise against 
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn,” says Isaiah ; 
they have no battle, they are judged, condemned, 
and cast into the lake of fire. The same scene is 
more fully described from the 11-15 verse Rev. xx. 
The prophet has given another description of a scene 
so connected with this that it will shed light on the 
subject. 

“ Fear, and the pit, and the snare ; are upon thee, 0 
inhabitant of the earth. And it shall come to pass 
that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall 
fall into the pit, and he that cometh up out of the 
midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare : for the 
windows from on high are open, and the foundations 
of the earth do shake. The earth is utterly broken 
down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved 
exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a 
drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage : and 
the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it: 
and it shall fall, and not rise again. And it shall 


42 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall punish 
the host of the high ones that are on high, and the 
kings of the earth upon the earth. And they shall 
be gathered together as prisoners are gathered in 
the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after 
many days they shall be visited. Then the moon 
shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, when the 
Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, and in 
Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously,” Isaiah 
xxiv. 17-23. 

This is evidently a description of the great day of 
wrath so often mentioned in the scriptures. The 
shaking of the earth spoken of by another prophet, 
“Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also 
heaven,” quoted by Paul, and applied to “ the remov¬ 
ing of those things that are made,” the inventions of 
men ; when an unfading and durable state of things 
shall be established, “a kingdom that cannot be 
moved.” It is a description of the time “ when the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of 
our Lord Jesus Christ.” 

The prophet says, “In that day the Lord shall 
punish the host of the high ones that are on high, 
and the kings of the earth upon the earth.” 

Punished upon the earth, by the pouring out of the 
vials of his wrath ; all the wicked shall be slain at 
his appearing. 

“ And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners 
are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


43 


prison, and after many days shall they be visited.” 
When thus literally slain at Christ's appearing they 
shall be shut up in prison where all the wicked who 
have died are now confined. “And after many 
days they shall be visited.” How shall they be 
visited ? not in mercy to be restored from punish¬ 
ment, as some teach, but by a resurrection to receive 
the final judgment. The prophet does not tell us 
how long before they shall be thus visited, but John 
does ; “ The rest of the dead lived not again until 
the thousand years were finished.” And as John 
fixes the millennial reign between the first and 
second resurrection, so does the prophet; when the 
wicked are thus shut up in prison, he says, “ Then 
the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, 
when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, 
and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” 
He shall yet reign in Mount Zion before his ancients. 
The patriarchs and prophets, all the righteous shall 
have part in that glorious reign. “ In the mouths of 
two or three witnesses every word shall be esta¬ 
blished.” 

Are not the righteous and the wicked raised at 
one resurrection ? The text teaches that the right¬ 
eous have the priority of a thousand years, or a 
millennium ; and there is no part of the Bible which 
contradicts it, but much which sustains it. “The 
general resurrection ” is a phrase now often used, but 
never by the sacred writers. “Ye shall receive 
your reward at the resurrection of the just.” “ They 
who have done good shall come forth unto the resur- 


44 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


rection of life ; and they who have done evil unto 
the resurrection of damnation.” So spake Jesus ; 
and Paul says, “ For as in Adam all die, even so in 
Christ shall all be made alive ; but every man in his 
own order; Christ the first fruits, afterwards they 
that are Christ’s at his coming.” “We which are 
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall 
not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord 
himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with 
the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of 
God ; and the dead in Christ shall rise first.” “We 
shall not prevent,” we shall not go before them, the 
dead in Christ shall rise first, not all the dead, but 
the dead in Christ. 

Again, Phil. iii. 11. “ If by any means I might 

attain unto a resurrection of the dead.” The Apostle 
knew and taught that there should be a resurrection 
both of the just and of the unjust, then of course he 
would be raised. The best critics give as a more 
literal rendering of this text, “ to the resurrection 
from among the dead.” Therefore the Apostle count¬ 
ed all things loss if by any means he might attain 
unto a resurrection from among the dead, or to a part 
in the first resurrection. 

Again, Christ, in speaking of the resurrection 
state, says, “ They which shall be accounted worthy to 
obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, 
neither marry nor are given in marriage : neither 
can they die any more : for they are equal unto the 
angels ; and are the children of God, being the chil¬ 
dren of the resurrection,” Luke xx. 35, 36. 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


45 


Christ taught that the wicked would be raised, yet 
he speaks of the worthy as “ being the children of the 
resurrection.” What can he mean but the resur¬ 
rection pre-eminently, “ the first resurrection,” a 
resurrection to which some were not accounted 
worthy to attain? But those who are accounted 
worthy to obtain a resurrection from the dead, from 
among the dead, “ are equal unto the angels.” 

“ And others were tortured not accepting deliver¬ 
ance that they might obtain a better resurrection,” 
Heb. xi. 35. Those blessed worthies of the Old Tes¬ 
tament, as well as the martyrs and confessors of the 
New, always kept in view the first resurrection. 
Who would not strive with the Apostle, if by any 
means he might obtain a part in the first resurrec¬ 
tion ? since it is written, “ On such the second death 
hath no power.” The Psalmist, xlix. 14, speaking of 
the death of the wicked, says, “ Death shall feed on 
them ; and the upright shall have dominion over 
them in the morning; 77 in the morning of that glori¬ 
ous millennial day. “ The morning cometh, and the 
night also.” The morning of that triumphant day to 
Christ and the saints, when he shall give them victory 
over all their foes, even death. ‘‘The last enemy 
that shall be destroyed is death. 77 That terrible day 
of the Lord so often mentioned in his word, when the 
wicked shall be swallowed up in the fire of his indig¬ 
nation. “ The morning cometh, and also the night. 77 
Fearful, terrible night to the wicked. 

The Bible clearly teaches two resurrections, always 
stating that of the righteous first; and like the 


46 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


pathway of the just, it shines brighter and brighter, 
till in the closing book the Revelator informs us how 
far apart they are, giving the righteous the pre-emi¬ 
nence of a millennium. 

The Author of our being has wisely made us dis¬ 
posed not to receive, without the best of evidence, 
any doctrine which seems new ; we should guard well 
that there be no innovation, for a bad faith leads to 
a bad life. But if age gives sanction to truth, though 
our view may seem new, the reader may learn in the 
history of the Church, that it is in accordance with 
the earliest expositions on record since the Revelator 
penned the text. 

Our wily Foe takes advantage of that disposition, 
given by our Heavenly Father, that we might con¬ 
tend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the 
saints ; and it is stimulated to the highest when the 
idolater is called on to embrace the religion of 
Christ; he holds on long after he is convinced of his 
error, as with a dying grasp to the faith of his 
fathers. 

Hence error is not introduced suddenly, but as in 
the Jewish Church, little by little, step by step, till 
so far led away, that when our Lord came, their reli¬ 
gion was a mere outside show. He said, “Ye are 
like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear 
beautiful outwardly, but are within full of dead men’s 
boues, and of all uncleanness.” 

They were so far from the truth, that they looked 
on the teachings of Christ as innovations, and 
sincerely inquired of him, “Why do thy disciples 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


47 


transgress the traditions of the elders ?” He replied, 
“ Why do ye also transgress the commandment of 
God by your traditions ?” 

So with a millennium in this mortal state, it has 
been introduced so imperceptibly, being so pleasing 
to all, till it is generally believed, and to speak 
against it, is to speak against the traditions of the 
elders ; yet it is not recognised in any of the creeds 
of the churches. 

The writings of those excellent commentators who 
favored it, are referred to as authority, just as the 
Jews to the traditions of the elders. We would not 
detract anything from those pious men, who have 
truly been great helps in the church, and will no 
doubt receive a crown of life in that day. Yet they 
never designed that their writings should become the 
oracles of the church ; as they themselves taught, 
that the word of God should be the only test to try 
all religious truth. “ To the law and to the testi¬ 
mony ; if they speak not according to this word, it is 
because there is no light in them/ 7 saith the Lord, 
Isaiah viii. 2d. 

There may be objections which we have not con¬ 
sidered ; none, we think, but what can be removed in 
the careful study of the word of God. But is there 
none on the other side ? Suppose that “ the millen¬ 
nial day will be introduced by a glorious revival of 
religion—that then will take place a great spiritual 
resurrection of the graces of the martyrs, and that all 
the world will be evangelized, and become holy— 
that the implements of war shall be laid aside for 


48 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


those of husbandry, and universal peace will ensue ; 
and all shall know the Lord, from the least to the 
greatest; and infants will be introduced into a world 
alive with spiritualities, and renewed by the power 
of the Holy Ghost, we know not how young ; 11 and, 
as one writer says, “ There shall be a thousand saved 
where there has been one lost, so that Christ will 
obtain finally a great victory over Satan ; and this 
blessed company exalted to be kings and priests, 
and Christ shall reign by the Spirit with them a 
thousand years. 

Now we would inquire, who are they whom Satan 
is to deceive after the thousand years have expired ? 
Is he to be let loose among the blessed and the holy, 
who have been kings and priests of God and of 
Christ, and cause such a great host to apostatize ? 
“ The number of whom is as the sand of the sea.” 
Satan would be well pleased to have Christ obtain 
such a victory, that he may retake them again. Such 
is the absurdity of a millennium in probation. The 
idea that there will .be occasionally one left, as tares 
in the wheat, will not make a multitude which shall 
cover “ the breadth of the earth, the number of whom 
is as the sand of the sea.” And such a theory is held, 
even by those who believe the doctrine of the final 
perseverance of the saints. Can they who hold that 
one may lose his soul after conversion, believe so 
absurd a thing ? Seeing it is written of that number 
who have part in the first resurrection, “ Gn such the 
second death hath no power.” 

Should that reign take place in this mortal state, 


SATAN LOOSED—GOG AND MAGOG. 


49 


and its inhabitants knowing that Satan would be 
finally let loose among them, and cause such a host to 
apostatize, it would strike a death-like chill through 
all the thousand years. And while Satan was bound 
in the pit, all hell would yawn with horrid grins of 
fiendish joy, in view of the future prospect. And if 
angels could weep, they would put on sackcloth, and 
Heaven would be veiled in mourning. 

Such is the absurdity to which this peace-snare of 
the Devil leads its votaries. It is Satan transformed 
into an angel of light. It is his master-work, with 
which the church and the world are flattered on with 
the hope of coming peace. Every great move in the 
world is interpreted to speak its coming. “ Whom 
the gods w'ould destroy, they first make mad/ 7 though 
a heathen proverb, is fearfully true in this case. 

There is a beauty and a consistency in the plain 
truths which give the whole family of Christ a part 
in the millennium ; in that great sabbath, typified 
by the sabbaths which they have kept while in the 
flesh. “ There remaineth, therefore, a rest (keeping 
of the sabbath) to the people of God 77 —not to a part, 
but “ to the people of God. 77 Not one of the family 
shall be absent. The patriarchs, prophets, and wor¬ 
thies of the Old Testament; and the apostles, 
martyrs, and confessors of the New ; all the meek, 
the pure, the good, shall keep the holy sabbath 
together ; fit preparation for those eternal joys of 
“ the restitution, 77 which await them in the saints 7 
everlasting inheritance. 


8 


CHAPTER V. 


THE PREACHING OF PEACE A SNARE TO THE JEWISH 
CHURCH. 

“They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people 
slightly, saying Peace, peace ; when there is no peace.”—J er. vi. 14. 

The Jewish teachers, by holding before the 
Church the prospect of peace and prosperity, caused 
the hearts of the people to be set on earthly 
aggrandizement, and “ the hurt/ 7 the deep depravity 
of the heart, was untouched. The healing was but 
slightly, and the religion of the majority was but an 
outward show. 

Very early in their history, those teachers who 
claimed that the promises to the fathers were to be 
fulfilled in the flesh, instilled into the Church the 
idea that they should triumph over all their foes ; 
tlfat the worship of the true God, the God of Israel, 
should be established in all dominions ; and that 
they should have a glorious reign of peace at the 
coming of the Messiah. Hence the universal anxiety 
for him to come. 

Ezekiel was sent to prophesy against those teach¬ 
ers or prophets, and God gave him the reason; 
“ Because, even because they have seduced my 
people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace. 
“ To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy con- 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


61 


cerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace 
for her, and there is no peace saith the Lord God,” 
Ezek. xiii. 10, 16. Those prophets who saw visions 
of peace for Jerusalem were always more popular 
and numerous than the faithful prophets. Why 
should they not be popular ? Was it not a desirable 
thing that the Church should see days of peace ? It 
suited all hearts. How could they find fault with 
visions of peace for their beloved Jerusalem or the 
Church ? But God saw otherwise—that trials and 
afflictions were better for her in this world. “ There 
is no peace, saith the Lord God.” In God the 
Church has peace, but in the world trials and afflic¬ 
tions await her. 

Those who saw visions of peace were so popular 
that the faithful prophets could rarely get a hearing ; 
they were charged with being mad, and of making 
themselves prophets; thus they kept God’s word 
from the people. “ Now, therefore, why hast thou 
not reproved Jeremiah of Anathoth, who maketh 
himself a prophet,” Jer. xxix. 24-27. 

In the days of Elijah there were four hundred and 
fifty prophets of Baal, and four hundred of the grove 
so popular that they eat at the queen’s table; while 
Elijah was considered “ him who troubleth Israel.” 
He had to flee into the wilderness, and into caves, to 
save his life. 

This charm of peace and a prospect of a glorious 
reign had been the popular doctrine so long, that it 
was interwoven with the very soul of the Jewish 
Church, so that when Christ came and began to 


52 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


preach the very opposite of all their views, his teach¬ 
ing was exceedingly obnoxious to them. There was 
no beauty to them in his doctrine. Instead of pro¬ 
mising them peace and a glorious reign in their 
beloved Jerusalem, he taught that hated truth that 
Jerusalem should be destroyed ; “ that it should be 
trodden down of the Gentiles, till the times of the 
Gentiles should be fulfilled.” Instead of peace, his 
followers might expect persecution ; and instead of 
honor, their names should be cast out as evil. They 
might indeed have a time to rejoice and be exceed¬ 
ing glad in this world, not because of glory, or 
honor, or peace; but “ when men shall revile you, 
and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil 
against you falsely, for my sake; for so persecuted 
they the prophets which were before you.” 

To embrace the truth which the Messiah taught, 
was to renounce their glorious hope of triumph for 
the Church of God, which they had been taught to 
expect at the coming of the Messiah. The Jews 
were not idolaters; their Church was the visible 
Church of God, and within her were found the few 
pious on earth. But the most of them had embraced 
the hope that the worship of the true God, the God 
of Israel, would triumph in all lands through the 
Messiah. The text was fully verified, “ They have 
healed also the hurt of the daughter of my people 
slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no 
peace.” The deep depravity, the pride of the heart, 
was not humbled with such a prospect before the 
Church. Yet, perhaps, the world never witnessed a 
people more strict in their religious rites. 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


53 


Their glorious hope was dashed to the ground by 
the teaching of Christ. He said instead of peace his 
followers might expect war and distress: “ For 
nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against 
kingdom : and there shall be famines, and pestilences, 
and earthquakes in divers places. All these are the 
beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you 
up to be afflicted, and shall kill you : and ye shall be 
hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then 
shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, 
and shall hate one another. And many false pro¬ 
phets shall arise and shall deceive many. And 
because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall 
wax cold. But he that shall endure to the end the 
same shall be saved.”—Matt. xxiv. 7-13. 

They could not endure to have their hope for the 
church thus torn away ! “ They hid as it were their 

faces from him.” Shall war and distress and famine 
and pestilence continue during all time? Yes ; even 
till Christ shall come to judgment. “ Men’s hearts 
failing them for fear, and for looking after those 
things which are coming on the earth : for the powers 
of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see 
the Son of man coming in a cloud, with power and 
great glory,” Luke xxi. 26, 27. Beginning with that 
time, he gave a prophetic history of the church to the 
judgment, with no such prospect of peace for them. 
“ They esteemed him notsuch humiliating truths 
found no admittance in their hearts. “ Satan trans¬ 
formed into an angel of light,” had perfectly charmed 
them with the coming reign of peace and glory for 


54 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


the church in thi£ mortal state. How gladly would 
Jesus have broken the spell! Hear him; “Suppose 
ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? I tell you 
nay ; but rather division.” Again he says, “ I came 
to send fire on the earth ; and what will I if it be 
already kindled!” Again, “ Think not that I am 
come to send peace on earth ; I came not to send 
peace but a sword.” Although his teachings were 
accompanied with the most undoubted miracles, yet 
these plain declarations from Christ did not break 
the spell, their ears were still deaf to the truth. 
There is no charm like the charm of peace ; they 
could plead it for the advancement of the cause of 
God ; it would be God glorified in the church. 
“ That angel of light” hovered over them, and there 
was no place in their hearts for the words of Christ. 
They were perfectly ensnared! They rejected the 
Lord Jesus Christ as a false Messiah, and held on to 
their hope of triumphant glory for the church in this 
life, to be accomplished when the true Messiah should 
come. Finally the terrible day of slaughter came 
upon them as foretold by Christ. 

History informs us that they wildly and madly 
resisted the Roman army beyond all prospect of suc¬ 
cess ; and in the terrible massacre they prayed and 
cried aloud in the most enthusiastic manner for their 
Messiah to come and give them victory over their 
foes. But their Messiah was an imaginary one ; 
and when there was no escape for them, their angel 
of light changed to the dark messenger of death. 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


55 


Let the Gentile Church read in her long acknow¬ 
ledged type, the fearful doom of the antitype. 

Oh, Almighty Saviour, break this charm of peace 
which lulls the Church and the world to sleep! The 
enemy cometh in like a flood, and she is overwhelmed, 
she sinks in the spirit of the world. Who can dis¬ 
cern between him who serveth God and him who 
serveth Him not ? And still the cry of “ Peace and 
safety ” is going abroad as on the wings of the wind. 
They know not that “ sudden destruction cometh 
upon them, and they shall not escape.” 

“ If we suffer with him we shall also reign with 
him.” How can his people anticipate such a day of 
glory in the flesh, when they think of his suffering 
life and ignominious death ? The servant above his 
Master ! “ And when he had called the people unto 

him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Who¬ 
soever will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever 
will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall 
lose his life for my sake and the gospel's, the same 
shall save it,” Mark viii. 34, 35. Thus the Saviour 
taught that whosoever would follow him must not 
only deny himself and take up his cross, but in so 
doing he would jeopardize his life. 

“ For it became him, for whom are all things, and 
by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto 
glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect 
through suffering. For both he that sanctifieth, and 
they who are sanctified, are all of one : for which 
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” 


56 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Heb. ii. 10,11. The Captain of their salvation made 
perfect through suffering! and his subjects live in 
probation, without suffering, without trials ; in a day 
when nothing shall hurt or destroy in all of God’s 
holy mountain ! And will they ever reign with him ? 
Will he call them brethren ? 

“ Did I meet no trials here— 

No chastisement by the way; 

Might I not, with reason, fear 
I should prove a cast-away.” 

The Revelator is permitted, through the vista of 
time, to view the great multitude of the redeemed 
from “ all nations, and kindreds, and people, and 
tongues, who stood before the throne, and before the 
Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their 
hands.” John, beholding them with anxious eye, is 
informed that “ these are they who have come out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and 
made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” No 
one of this company ripened for the heavenly king¬ 
dom in a millennial state. “ A state of peace and 
glory—the implements of war laid aside for those of 
husbandry—the infant introduced into a world alive 
with spiritualities, and renewed by the power of the 
Holy Ghost we know not how young—in infancy, a 
man in understanding—the lowest in the church, 
Edward Paysons and Madam Gyons, by their supe¬ 
rior knowledge of the sciences, they will have com¬ 
plete power over the elements—disease will be chased 
out of the land—they will grow up to hale old age 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 57 

without sickness or pain, and pass away into heaven 
without a struggle or a groan.” Can it be said of 
the inhabitants of such a time, that “ these are they 
who have come out of great tribulation ?” 

The above is not the highest colored picture which 
we have seen of that imaginary day. 

True, they quote some Scripture in proof which ha3 
reference to this life, but other Scripture is quoted 
that can never apply to the Church in probation, 
which is applicable only to that higher and more 
glorious state—to the Church triumphant, in that 
rest which awaits the people of God, when they shall 
enter upon their final reward. 

The inhabitants of such a day could not be the 
sons of God. “ For whom the Lord loveth he chas- 
teneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” 
For God has declared, “ that through much tribula¬ 
tion we must enter the kingdom of God.” 

What sympathy would there be between Jesus, the 
“ man of sorrows,” and such a people ? or between 
them and all the rest of the Church, who go from 
trials, from persecution, from “ cruel mockings,” from 
hunger, from torture, from the rack, from the flame, 
to the heavenly kingdom ? 

“ Must I be carried to the skies, 

On flowery beds of ease; 

Whilst others fought to win the prize, 

And sailed through bloody seas.”— Watts. 


8* 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE PREACHING OP PEACE, A SNARE TO THE CHRIS¬ 
TIAN CHURCH. 

* 

u Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to 
send peace but a sword.”— Matt. x. 34. 

Those teachers, who claim that the implements of 
war are to be laid aside for those of husbandry, 
contradict the above teaching of Christ. They 
virtually say, not so ; the result of Christ’s coming 
will bring universal peace, and will cause “ the sword 
to be beat into the ploughshare, and the spear into 
the pruning-hook.” Jesus replies, Luke xii. 51, 
“ Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth ? 
I tell you, nay ; but rather division.” Still they 
answer, “ Divisions shall cease, the watchman shall 
see eye to eye, and all shall be united as the result 
of thy coming.” Again he replies, “ I tell you, nay ; 
but rather division ; for from henceforth there shall 
be five in one house divided.” He prophesies that 
from his day onward there shall be divisions. Who 
has spoken true? Divisions multiply, churches are 
divided and subdivided, and the most ingenious 
weapons of death increase. “ Yea, let God be true.” 

But have not the prophets foretold that the sword 
shall be bent into the ploughshare, and the spear 
into the pruning-hook ? The prophets have foretold 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


59 


that the people in the last days would teach, or say 
that “ the sword shall be beat .into the ploughshare 
and the spear into the pruning-hook.” And they 
have also foretold that war would continue more or 
less during all probation. 

Isaiah and Micah are the only prophets who have 
spoken of the sword being beat into the plough¬ 
share ; and they both tell us, not that the sword 
would be beat into the ploughshare, and the spear 
into the pruning-hook, but that the people of the last 
days would so teach. And their prediction has 
been fulfilled to the letter. 

Let the reader carefully examine the prophecy 
beginning with Isaiah ii. 2. “ And it shall come to 

pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord’s 
house shall be established in the top of the moun¬ 
tains ; and shall be exalted above the hills; and all 
nations shall flow unto it.” “ In the last days ;” in 
the gospel days, near their close. 

“ The mountain of the Lord’s house.” The Lord’s 
house, or temple at Jerusalem, is chosen as a figure to 
represent the church; and the low mountain on' 
which the temple stood, to represent the word of 
God, that on which the church is built. “ And are 
built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner¬ 
stone ; in whom all the building fitly framed 
together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord ; 
in whom ye also are builded together for a habita¬ 
tion of God through the spirit.”—Eph. ii. 20-22. 

The writings of the apostles and of the prophets, 


60 THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 

Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone, is the 
mountain of the Lord’s house, or that on which the 
.church is built, according to the apostle. 

To suppose no figure used is to suppose that the 
low mountain on which the temple was built will be 
literally raised as high as the highest mountains 
about Jerusalem ; and the Lord’s house built on the 
top of it. 

The figure is a beautiful one. It is the mountain 
on which the house stands, the word of God, that 
is to be so highly exalted in the last days ; and the 
church which is built upon it must necessarily be 
prominent. 

Think of the difference between the present time 
and the time when the prophet wrote. Then, the 
word of God was written with a pen, but few copies 
in the world ; now it is within the reach of all in 
Christendom. Even since the art of printing, a copy 
of the Bible cost so much that few were able to pur¬ 
chase it; now a full copy may be had for twenty-five 
cents. In the days when infidelity reigned in France 
its enemies thought to destroy it; but since that day 
it has been translated into about two hundred differ¬ 
ent tongues and languages. Tons and tons have 
been shipped to heathen lands. The Bible is now 
exalted beyond the reach of the infidel to extermi¬ 
nate. No book ever had an equal circulation. “ The 
mountain of the Lord’s house is established in the 
top of the mountains, and exalted above the hills.” 

“ And all nations shall flow unto it.” The Bible 
is now being distributed, and undoubtedly will be, 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 61 

in every nation, and read in every land. “ And this 
gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the 
world, as a witness unto all nations ; and then shall 
the end come.” As a witness , not that they will all 
be converted. It has been preached for a long time 
in the Christian nations, and probably not one in ten 
has been converted. As we before said, the church 
thus situated on this exalted mountain must be very 
prominent. But an exalted situation is not always a 
guarantee for purity. Ahab was exalted to be king 
of Israel, but he was exceedingly wicked. Though 
she has so high a situation, the sequel shows that she 
is not very pure. 

The following verses inform us what the people 
shall teach or say in those days. “ And many people 
shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we 
will walk in his paths ; for out of Zion shall go 
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jeru¬ 
salem. And he shall judge among the nations, and 
shall rebuke many people ; and they shall beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into 
pruning-hooks: nation shall not lift up sword 
against nation, neither sjfiall they learn war any 
more. 0 house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk 
in the light of the Lord.”—Vs. 3-5. 

These three verses are a prophecy of what would 
be taught in the last days. There is no difficulty in 
determining how much of it is what the people would 
-say. The prophet has made it very distinct, for 


62 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


their sayings end in the same manner that they com¬ 
mence. They commence with, “ Come ye, and let us go 
up to the mountains of the Lord,” and they end with, 
“ Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.” 
The following verse also, being an address to God 
by the prophet, concerning those teachers, fixes 
beyond a doubt the extent of their sayings or teach¬ 
ings. 6th verse, “ Therefore thou hast forsaken thy 
people the house of Jacob, because they be reple¬ 
nished from the east, and are soothsayers like the 
Philistines, and they please themselves in the chil¬ 
dren of strangers.” 

We might as well claim that the Bible teaches 
“ that there is no God,” as to claim that this pro¬ 
phecy teaches, “ the sword would be beat into the 
ploughshare and the spear into the pruning-hook.” 
The one is the saying of the fool, who “ said in his 
heart, there is no God ;” the other is a prophecy of 
what the people would teach, or say, in the last 
days ; and no one can dispute its fulfilment in these 
days. 

If the reader will closely observe the prophecy he 
will see that God has foretold what the Church 
would teach in the last days; and instead of its 
being a prophecy of a very pure and holy church, it 
is the opposite—one which God forsakes. “ There¬ 
fore thou hast forsaken thy people ;” “ the zeal of 
thine house hath eaten me up,” was foretold as the 
voice of Christ by the Psalmist. 

The Jews, in their zeal for God and the Church, 
fulfilled the prophecies in putting to death the Mes- 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


63 


siah, and they were forsaken of God. The Chris¬ 
tian Church, in her zeal for God and the Church, to 
keep out heretics, seated herself on “ the scarlet 
colored beast, and became drunk with the blood of 
saints ;” and they fulfilled the word of God with 
Revelation in their hands ; and God has forsaken 
her. 

The Protestant Church, in her zeal for God and 
the Church, has equally unwittingly fulfilled this 
prophecy. “ Therefore thou hast forsaken thy peo¬ 
ple,” says the prophet. Why ? what evil in such 
preaching ? The preaching of the law may make a 
sinner tremble—the glories of that heavenly country 
may win his ajfections from earthly things—the 
love of Jesus, as exhibited on the cross, may melt 
and break his heart in penitence, through the Holy 
Spirit; but the preaching that the nations shall 
learn war no more, of great prosperity on earth, of 
good health and universal peace, may “ have healed 
also the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, 
saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace ;” but 
more, it never did, nor can do. It has not only 
healed slightly the deep wound of sin, but it holds 
out the prospect of pleasure for the Church in this 
world, notwithstanding Christ said, “ In the world 
ye shall have tribulation.” And it has raised up 
such a church as the Apostle has said would exist in 
the last days, 2 Tim. iii. 1-5, “ Lovers of pleasure 
more than lovers of God, having a form of godli¬ 
ness.” This is seen in the mode of obtaining dona¬ 
tions. Connect the giving with a pleasure party, 


64 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


and the cause is sustained. Those church feasts, the 
profits of which go to the cause of God, are crowded 
with good donors. Wherefore ? Because they love 
God? By no means, or the donation could be 
obtained without the pleasure party. The evidence 
is clear—“ They are lovers of pleasure more than 
lovers of God.” 

But this is not all the evil of this peace preaching ; 
they teach that God has said, the sword shall bo beat 
into the ploughshare, &c. 

Were a friend to write us a letter and state what 
the people were saying in a certain community, we 
should not think of ascribing those sayings to him ; 
and should we do so, and it prove adverse to his 
well-being, the law would enable him to sustain an 
action of libel against us. How could the prophet 
have said less than, “ Therefore thou hast forsaken 
thy people!” They have slandered their God ; yea 
more, they have done to Him that, which if done even 
to a fellow-being, would be a libel. They teach that 
God has said the sword should be beat into the 
ploughshare, when God only foretold that they would 
so teach. Let the prophet answer why God has for¬ 
saken them. 

“ Because they be replenished from the east, and 
are soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please 
themselves in the children of strangers.” 

In explaining scripture they have, to a great extent, 
introduced the “ eastern accommodation system/* or 
otherwise “ German Neology.’* Thus confident of 
success, her teachers have become careless in reading 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


65 


the word of God. Better learned in the sciences and 
the wisdom of the world than in the word of God 
and the school of Christ. They have unwittingly 
fulfilled this scripture ; and perhaps have been as 
honest in preaching that God had said the sword 
should be beat into the ploughshare, as Saul, that 
zealous member of the Jewish church, was in persecut¬ 
ing the saints. He verily thought he was doing God 
service. We pray that they may as heartily repent 
and become as zealous for the truth. 

Soothsayers are those who undertake to foretell 
future events without the inspiration of God to 
direct them, like the priests of the Philistines. The 
temporal millennium is a pleasing theme lor them to 
dwell on; they say we shall yet have a law esta¬ 
blished on Christian principles, “ for out of Zion shall 
go forth the law and the word of the Lord from Jeru¬ 
salem.” The Jews, they tell us, will be restored, and 
they shall spread the Gospel from Jerusalem to the 
heathen nations. Micah iv. contains a very similar 
prophecy. There is a little difference which is wor¬ 
thy to be mentioned ; and these two are the only 
prophecies in God’s word which speak of swords 
being beat into the ploughshare. Isaiah says the 
people; Micah, the nations shall come and say, 
Come, &c. 

We have already had our World’s Peace Conven¬ 
tion ; the object of which was to establish a World’s 
Congress, composed of members elected by the seve¬ 
ral nations friendly to peace. That this congress 
might decide the difficulties which arise between 


66 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


nations without resorting to the sword. They used 
in their circular letter the words which the prophet 
foretold the nation would say. Micah from the 
second to the fourth verse tells what they would say ; 
but in the fifth verse concludes that it w r ould prove a 
failure. “ For all people will walk every one in the 
name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the 
Lord our God for ever and ever.” 

To hold on to their idols, “For all people will 
walk every one in the name of his god,” is a sad 
ending for a portion of scripture claimed to teach a 
millennium. 

The nations fight on, walking in the name of the god 
of war. The friends of peace did not accomplish 
their object; but they have fulfilled this scripture, 
and they knew it not. 

“ They please themselves in the children of stran¬ 
gers.” 

It is too true that men of wealth, of influence, and 
of education, are greatly coveted by the church. She 
is called on to pray especially for such men. But she 
has no special meetings to pray for the poor, and 
the poor man knows it. “ My brethren, have not the 
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, 
with respect of persons. For if there come unto your 
assembly, a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, 
and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment; 
and ye have respect to him that weareth the gay 
clothing, and say unto him, sit thou here in a good 
place, and say to the poor, stand thou there, or sit 
here under my foot-stool. Are ye not then partial in 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


6T 


yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts. 
Hearken, my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen 
the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the 
kingdom which he hath promised to them that love 
him ? But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich 
men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment- 
seat ? Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by 
the which ye are called ? If ye fulfil the royal law 
according to the scriptures, thou shalt love thy 
neighbor as thyself, ye do well; but if ye have 
respect to persons ye commit sin, and are convinced 
of the law as transgressors.”—James ii. 1-9. 

But have we not a good object in seeking the edu¬ 
cated, the noble, and the rich ? Can they not do 
much more for the cause of God than the poor and 
the illiterate? Our judgment would certainly say 
they could. But God has decided otherwise ; “ That 
no flesh should glory in his presence.” The silent 
ejaculation which has gone up before God from that 
poor widow when she cast in her mite, may have pre¬ 
vailed more with God for his cause than the prayers, 
influence, and offerings of half a dozen of the learned 
and the rich. “ To obey is better than sacrifice.” 

“ For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not 
many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not 
many noble are called. But God has chosen the 
foolish things of the world to confound the wise ; and 
God has chosen the weak things of the world to con¬ 
found the things which are mighty ; and base things 
of the world, and things which are despised hath God 
chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to 


68 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


naught things that are ; that no flesh should glory in 
his presence.”—1 Cor. i. 26-29. 

They please themselves in the children of stran¬ 
gers. The prophet comes to a very different conclu¬ 
sion from the church about the fulfilment of the pro¬ 
phecy. They have supposed that the fulfilling of the 
prophecy would usher in the millennium, during 
which the church would be very pure and holy, and 
that Christ would reign spiritually with her a thou¬ 
sand years. But the prophet concludes that the ful¬ 
filment of the prophecy would bring about so impure 
and unholy a state, that instead of reigning with her, 
God would forsake her. 

Her crime is summed up in these three : 

First, she has been careless in reading the word of 
God, and has made use of it to suit her desire, with¬ 
out regard to its true meaning. 

Second, she has proclaimed for herself peace in 
this world, where her Lord said she should have 
tribulation. 

Third, she has been lax in examining her converts, 
and indifferent in her discipline, being anxious to 
swell her numbers ; she has multiplied herself with 
the children of strangers, who are not the children 
of God. 

Mark her onward course in the remaining part of 
this chapter, till she seeks to hide herself in the clefts 
of the rocks from the presence of her God, when He 
arises in his indignation to shake terribly the earth. 

7th verse. “ Their land is also full of silver and 
gold, neither is there any end of their treasures ; their 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 


69 


land also is full of horses, neither is there any end of 
their chariots.” 

“ Full of silver and gold, neither is there any end 
of their treasures.” This is manifest in the cost of 
some of their houses of worship, some of which cost 
over a million of dollars, many of them a hundred 
thousand. They vie with each other that they may 
surpass in splendor. These are the churches expect¬ 
ing the heathen to be converted ; but when aid is 
wanted, comparatively a small pittance goes into the 
treasury, and the cause suffers for means. 

“ Their land is also full of horses, neither is there 
any end of their chariots.” 

The splendor of their carriages, and the glory of 
their equipages, when they appear at their houses of 
worship, are not surpassed by princes. And while 
they listen to the siren song of coming peace, their 
coachmen are with their horses, and hear the gospel 
perhaps as often as the heathen, whom the Church 
claim will soon be converted. 

8th verse. “ Their land also is full of idols ; they 
worship the work of their own hands, that which 
their own fingers have made.” 

Perhaps no age ever equalled this, in the works of 
art, for utility and ornament; and perhaps no age 
ever paid such devotion to them. The enthusiasm 
and devotion manifest at the exhibitions are hardly 
equalled when the most devout assemble to worship 
the God of Heaven. No indifferent, sleepy persons 
there ; all-full of admiration and devotion. “ They 


70 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


worship the work of their own hands, that which 
their own fingers have made.” 

9th verse. “ And the mean man boweth down, and 
the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive 
them not.” 

Inspiration puts a prayer into the mouth of the 
prophet against them. 

They are next called upon to hide themselves in 
the rocks from the presence of the Lord. 

These teachers inform us that the idols shall all be 
abolished. True, they shall; and the prophet in¬ 
forms us when, but not in the millennium. 

20th, 21st verses. “ In that day a man shall cast 
his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they 
made each one for himself to worship, to the moles 
and to the bats ; to go into the clefts of the rocks, 
and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the 
Lord, and for the glory of his majesty, when he aris- 
eth to shake terribly the earth.” 

The idols of silver and gold will not go into the 
clefts of the rocks, but those who continue to worship 
them, till God ariseth to shake terribly the earth. 
Then those precious articles of gold and silver, and 
all their fine equipage, will be cast suddenly away as 
useless ; that their owners, who have set their affec¬ 
tions on them, may flee to the rocks and mountains, 
to hide themselves from the presence of him who 
sitteth upon the Throne, and from the wrath of the 
Lamb. 

“ Come then, and added to thy many crowns, 

Receive yet one, as radiant as the rest, 


THE FALSE CRY OF PEACE. 

Due to thy last and most effectual work; 

Thy word fulfilled, the conquest of a world! 

Thy saints proclaim thee King; and thy delay 
Gives courage to their foes, who, could they see 
The dawn of thy last advent, long desired, 

Would creep into the bowels of the hills, 

And flee for safety to the falling rocks.”— Cowper. 


71 


CHAPTER YII. 


THE EARTH PROMISED TO CHRIST AS A POSSESSION. 

“ Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, 
and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.”—Ps. ii. 8. 

The above is made a prominent proof text to teach 
that the millennial reign takes place in probation. 
But those who so teach are careful to quote no 
further, and would have us understand from this 
verse that the heathen will be converted. 

When they pray for that millennial day, this verse 
generally composes a part of the prayer, but the 
next verse shows that if their prayer should be 
answered, the heathen instead of being converted 
would be destroyed. 

“ Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” 

In view of this terrible declaration an exhortation 
follows, to the kings and judges of the earth, who 
are in possession of the inheritance promised his Son, 
that they embrace the Son while there is opportunity, 
before the kingdoms are taken from them, and they 
punished for their unrighteous reign. 

“ Be wise now therefore, 0 ye kings ; be instructed, 
ye judges of the earth ; serve the Lord with fear. 
Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from 
the way when his wrath is kindled but a little.” 


THE EARTH CHRIST’S POSSESSION. 73 

If the heathen are to be converted when Christ 
receives “ the uttermost parts of the earth for a 
possession/ 7 what force would there be in the exhor¬ 
tation ? Suppose the kings and judges of the earth 
inquire, what will be the consequences if we do not 
embrace the Son? The only consistent answer 
would be, if you do not embrace the Son you will all 
soon be converted. There would be no force or 
sense in the exhortation. It would have the same 
effect that the preaching of peace has always had, to 
quiet the sinner in his sins. Thus their exposition 
makes this searching truth of God to the sinner of 
no effect. 

But receive it as it is written, without any explana¬ 
tion, and there is force and power in the exhortation. 
Embrace the Son while he is waiting to be gracious ; 
for he has only to ask the Father, and the kingdoms 
are his ; and then he will arise from the mercy-seat, 
and in his indignation will dash in pieces those who 
obey not his gospel, “ and they shall perish from the 
way when his wrath is kindled but a little. 77 

The Father has said to the Son, “ Ask of me, and I 
shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and 
the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. 
Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron ; thou 
shalt dash them in pieces like a potter 7 s vessel, 77 and 
John the Revelator informs us that it shall take 
place at the sounding of the seventh trumpet, Rev. 
xi. 15-18. 

" And the seventh angel sounded ; and there were 
great voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this 
4 


74 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” 
It is in connexion with the day of judgment that he 
takes possession of the kingdoms. “ The nations 
were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of 
the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou 
shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, 
and to the saints, and them that fear thy name small 
and great.” Then he executes the punishment fore¬ 
told : “ That thou shouldst destroy them that destroy 
the earth.” The promise of the Father will then 
be fulfilled; “ the uttermost parts of the earth 
become his possession,” and “ he shall reign for ever 
and ever.” His reign shall be an eternal, glorious, 
and righteous reign. 

“ Know, therefore, when my season comes to sit 
On David’s throne, it shall be like a tree 
Spreading and overshadowing all the earth; 

Or as a stone that shall to pieces dash 
All monarchies besides through the world; 

And of my kingdom there shall be no end.”— Milton. 


Notwithstanding, “ the kings of the earth set them¬ 
selves, and the rulers take counsel together against 
the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying, Let us 
break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords 
from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh : 
the Lord shall have them in derision.” 

The kingdoms of this world are Christ’s lawful 
dominion ; and when he takes to himself his great 
power and reigns, he will break as with a rod of 


THE EARTH CHRIST^ POSSESSION. 75 

iron, and dash to pieces as a potter’s vessel those 
who have not kissed the Son, or embraced his cause. 

Another text claimed as proof that the church will 
have a triumphant reign during probation, is found 
in Jer. xxxi. 34 : “ And they shall teach no more 
every man his neighbor and every man his brother, 
saying, Know the Lord ; for they shall all know me, 
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, 
saith the Lord.” 

“ For they shall all know me.” To know God is 
life eternal. Then, there cometh a day when all the 
inhabitants of the earth shall be holy. Great and 
precious promise! Happy prophet, who in holy 
vision saw the day, and still more happy will he be 
when he mingles with that holy company. Oh, 
Earth ! does the day truly come when all thy inhabit¬ 
ants shall be righteous? Yes; it is the guarantee 
of thy Maker ; and a blessed sabbath calm shall one 
day fill Emmanuel’s land, and the whole dominion 
shall be holy. No horrid oaths of blasphemy shall 
be heard ; no pestilential breath to sicken the inha¬ 
bitants ; no blasting wind to wither its fruit; but its 
inhabitants shall inhale the fragrance of the unfading 
flowers of a restored Paradise. 

But the prophet has immovably fixed that blessed 
time beyond the bounds of probation. He says, in 
that day “ they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know 
the Lord while He who inspired the prophet has 
commanded his disciples to teach their neighbor and 
their brother to know the Lord during all probation, 


76 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


even to the end of time, saying, “ Lo, I am with thee 
alway, even to the end of the world.” 

In that day “ they shall all know me, saith the 
Lord.” To know God is life eternal, hence they 
shall all be righteous. But Christ says that “ the 
tares and the wheat,” or the righteous and the wicked, 
shall mingle together during all probation, till they 
are separated at his coming. 

It seems also from the context, that God, foreseeing 
the general tendency to fix the hope of its fulfilment 
in the flesh, still further guarded this precious pro¬ 
mise. The prophet, speaking of the gospel days, 
says, “In those days they shall say no more the 
fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children’s 
teeth are set on edge. But every one shall die for 
his own iniquity ; every man that eateth the sour 
grape, his teeth shall be set on edge. Behold the 
days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new 
covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house 
of Judah. Not according to the covenant that I 
made with their fathers, in the days that I took them 
by the hand to lead them out of Egypt; which my 
covenant they break, although I was an husband unto 
them, saith the Lord.” 

A covenant is an agreement. A covenant between 
God and man is a condescension on the part of God 
whereby he enters into a solemn agreement to fulfil 
certain promises. And the covenant which he made 
with his people when he brought them out of Egypt, 
was sealed by the blood of beasts under the law ; in 
which he promises a better state of things, a new 


THE . EARTH CHRISTAS POSSESSION. 77 

covenant sealed with a better sacrifice when the pro¬ 
mised seed should come; then the true atonement 
should be made. The law therefore was a shadow of 
good things to come, “ a schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ.” The promised blessings of its covenant are 
extended through the gospel dispensation. The cove¬ 
nant which God made with Israel, when he brought 
them out of Egypt, was only a renewal of the promise 
of the new covenant, or the gospel, which had been 
before proclaimed to Abraham ; and the ceremonial 
law, or that covenant, was added, says Paul, “ because 
of transgression till the promised seed should come.” 
By it the people had a “ shadow of good things to 
come,” or “ a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ.” 
The blessings or promises of the former covenant 
looked only to the gospel, while those promises of the 
gospel covenant look to “ the world to come.” 

“ But this shall be the covenant that I will make 
with the house of Israel: After those days, saith the 
Lord, I will put my law into their inward parts, and 
write it in their hearts ; and will be their God, and 
they shall be my people. And they shall teach no 
more every man his neighbor, and every man his bro¬ 
ther, saying, know the Lord : for they shall all know 
me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, 
saith the Lord.” 

As the promises of the former covenant looked 
forward to the gospel days, so the promises of the new 
covenant look forward to the age to come for their 
fulfilment. True, we get a foretaste here ; when “ ye 
believed, ye wer^. sealed with that Holy Spirit of 


78 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until 
the redemption of the purchased possession unto the 
praise of his glory.” 

Christ has not yet saved his people from the con¬ 
sequences of sin; but his covenant, his agreement 
with all those who believe, is, that he will redeem 
them, soul and body, from all its evil consequences, 
from mortality, corruption, and the grave ; and that 
he “ will put his law in their inward parts, and write 
it in their hearts/ 7 so that they shall not need to be 
taught to know the Lord. 

This new covenant, or promise, established by the 
blood of the Testator, sealed to every believer by the 
Holy Spirit, is to be fulfilled, says the prophet, “ after 
those days after the gospel days, the days allotted 
for the people to enter into covenant with God, or to 
believe. 

But in this mortal state he does not put his law in 
their inward parts, or write it in their hearts. The 
unhappy fate of a Thomas Munzer and his followers, 
in the days of Luther, and many others since, should 
convince us of the folly of such a doctrine. They 
believed that the law of God was written in their 
hearts, and hence became wise above the word of 
God. 

In this life the people are dependent on the word 
of God. “ This gospel of the kingdom shall be 
preached in all the world, as a witness unto all 
nations. 77 Teaching is the great work during all pro¬ 
bation, but “ After those days, 77 the gospel days, in 
that better world, he will fulfil the promises of the 


THE EARTH CHRISTAS POSSESSION. 79 

new covenant, the gospel covenant, by putting his 
“ law in their inward parts, and writing it in their 
hearts ; and they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know 
the Lord, for they shall all know me, saith the Lord : 
for I will forgive their iniquity and remember their 
sin no more.” The law of love written in their 
hearts shall unite all holy intelligences to one another, 
and to their common Lord for ever. Those command¬ 
ments, of love to God, and to our neighbor, upon 
which, said the Saviour, “ hang all the law and the 
prophets,” with which he shall for ever govern all holy 
beings. 

“ And remember their sins no more.” There must 
be a remembrance of sin till its evil consequences are 
all removed. Although God has thus clearly fixed 
in the paradisiacal state of the earth, the time when 
all shall be righteous, when all shall know him from 
the least to the greatest, yet men, seemingly deter¬ 
mined to have a time of triumph for the church in the 
flesh, claim that the fulfilment of the promise is to be 
in probation. 

If that glorious day takes place in probation, the 
Bible would have to be revised. The wide gate and 
broad way which leads to destruction would have to 
become narrow, so that few could find it. The 
strait gate and narrow way which leads to life 
would have to become broad, and the great multitude 
would go together there. 

“0 thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not 
comforted,” could no longer be addressed to the 


80 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


church as truth. A great portion of the Bible would 
have to be reversed. It would not do to read from 
Dan. vii. that there shall be a wicked power which 
shall prevail against the saints till the judgment 
sits. 

Those prophecies of our Lord, showing that his 
followers would be persecuted and afflicted till he 
comes again, would be wrong; and that page on 
which the parable of the tares in the field is written, 
and its explanation, would have to be sealed up. 

What part of the holy Book would there be left 
suitable for such a day ? “ Through much tribulation 
ye shall enter the kingdom of God,” would have to 
be reversed. “He scourgeth every son whom he 
receiveth,” would have to be blotted out. “ In the 
world ye shall have tribulation,” would be false. 
No ; it can never be. The Church cannot have her 
glory till she reaches it through the vale of humility 
and suffering. 

The Bible has but few pages that do not contain 
something directly or indirectly against this snare of 
Satan. Yet its votaries are quite at ease, perfectly 
confident of success, and are promising themselves a 
day in probation of peace and glory for the church : 
when her watchmen shall see eye to eye; but facts 
tell us that divisions have been multiplying since the 
days of the Apostles. And while the church is at 
ease, sure that the world will be converted, “ That 
Wicked,” that Man of Sin is active and energetic, 
leaving no measure untried, and is now working his 
way to the strong arm of the civil power, already 


THE EARTH CHRISTAS POSSESSION. 


81 


beginning to boast that its strength is being wielded 
in his favor. 

The Papal influence with the nations of the earth 
far surpasses that of the Protestant. And it is con¬ 
tinually gaining Protestant territory. And further, 
God has said “ that it shall prevail against the saints 
and overcome them till the judgment sits,” Dan. vii. 
25, 26. Then it shall be destroyed by the brightness 
of Christ’s coming, as Paul has said, 2 Thess. ii. 8. 

If that power should keep pace with the rapid 
strides it has made for the few past years in the 
British dominion and the United States, it will soon 
have the ascendency in these strongholds of the Pro¬ 
testant Church. 

What is the answer of God to the souls under the 
altar who had been slain as witnesses for Jesus? 
“ And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under 
the altar the souls of them that were slain for the 
Word of God, and for the testimony which they held ; 
and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, 
0 Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and 
avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth ? 
And white robes were given unto every one of them, 
and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet 
for a little season, until their fellow-servants also and 
their brethren, that should be killed as they were, 
should be fulfilled.”—Rev. vi. 9-11. 

Does God say that they should rest till their breth¬ 
ren should enjoy a millennial day ? By no means. 
But “ that they should rest yet for a little season, 
until their fellow-servants also and their brethren 
4 * 


82 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


that should be killed as they were, should be ful¬ 
filled.” 

An Apostle could say “ that the Holy Ghost wit¬ 
nessed in every city, saying, that bonds and afflic¬ 
tions abide me ;” and a Watts could sing 

“ Are there no foes for me to face ? 

Must I not stem the flood ? 

Is this vile world a friend to grace, 

To help me on to God ? 

“Sure I must fight, if I would reign; 

Increase my courage, Lord; 

Til bear the toil, endure the pain, 

Supported by thy Word.” 

“ Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for 
thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them 
with a rod of iron ; thou shalt dash them in pieces 
like a potter’s vessel.” 


CHAPTER VIII. 

THE LOCATION OF THE INHERITANCE OF THE SAINTS. 

“ Blessed are the meek; for they shall inherit the earth.” 

Matt. v. 5. 

“ The meek ”■—all the Christian graces summed up 
in a word : the gentle, the humble, the kind, the 
pure, the good. Those only are meek who have been 
made so by the blood of Jesus. They are true Chris¬ 
tians. 

But have not Christians always inherited the 
earth ? If so, then, this beatitude must be revised, 
and should be read, “ Blessed are the meek ; for they 
do inherit the earth.” No ; it needs no revising or 
explaining ; it is a plain promise still unfulfilled. 

Only a glance at the History of the Church will 
convince us that Christians have never inherited the 
earth. How was it with those dear disciples to 
whom he spake ? They sold their houses and lands, 
and forsook all for Christ. Christians, in the days 
of the apostles, sold their possessions, and brought the 
price and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and went every¬ 
where preaching the Word. 

During the reign of the Roman Emperors, three 
millions of Christians had their property confiscated 
by the government, and they were given to the wild 
beasts, at the pleasure of their oppressors, to be 


84 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


destroyed. There was a respite in the days of Con¬ 
stantine ; but soon the Church became popular, and, 
as usual, the opposite of “ the meek ”—the proud and 
the rash—professed religion, and that famous decree 
went forth, that “ ignorance is the mother of devo¬ 
tion,” and the people were not permitted to read the 
Bible without the annotations of the Priest. The 
result was, that those who read and understood it for 
themselves, true Christians, were persecuted unto 
death, till fifty millions of “ the meek ” poured out 
their blood as martyrs, and their property was given 
over to fill the coffers of the professed Church. This 
holy band of martyrs, this great company of “ the 
meek,” have not inherited the earth. 

Since our Lord gave this promise it could not have 
been said in truth, the meek inherit the earth. It 
has more generally been the poor in this world’s 
goods who have embraced religion. When men of 
wealth have been converted to God, their property 
and possessions have been laid on the altar, and all 
they have bought with a price ; henceforth they have 
been the stewards of God, expecting to render an 
account of their stewardships, of what disposition 
they make of their property, and possessions ; know¬ 
ing that “ here they have no continuing city, but seek 
one to come,” as did the Pilgrim Fathers. And those 
Christians who do not acknowledge God as the owner 
of their possessions and themselves but stewards, die 
spiritually, as certainly as Ananias and Sapphira died 
literally, for lying to the Holy Ghost in keeping back 
part of the price of the land. 


THE LOCATION. 


85 


The people of God have never inherited the earth, 
neither can they while mortal; but “ blessed are the 
meek ; for they shall inherit the earth.” This pro¬ 
mise will be fulfilled with those other promises given 
on the same occasion ; when “ the pure in heart shall 
see God.” * 

The promise that the meek shall inherit the earth 
was not first given on the mountain to the disciples, 
but it had been previously given by the same Lord 
and Saviour to Abraham “ the friend of God.” Even 
before the law this gospel promise was preached to 
Abraham, the father of the faithful whom Paul calls 
“ the heirs of the world.” “ For if the inheritance 
be of the law, it is no more of promise : but God 
gave it to Abraham by promise,” Gal. iii. 18. 

Jesus also said to the Jews, “your father Abraham 
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad.” 
At which time the Lord promised the land both to 
him, and to his seed ; not simply to dwell in as 
pilgrims and strangers, but for an everlasting posses¬ 
sion. God promised Abraham that he should have 
it for ever, and he believed God. Hence he is called 
“the heir of the world, not through the law, but 
through the righteousness of faith,” Rom. iv. 13. 

“ And the Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot 
was separated from him, lift up now thine eyes, and 
look from the place where thou art, northward and 
southward, and eastward, and westward ; for all the 
land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to 
thy seed for ever.” “ Arise, walk through the land 


86 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


in the length of it, and in the breadth of it; for I 
will give it unto thee,” Gen. xiii. 14, 15, 17. 

Did Abraham have the land according to this 
promise ? No ; not one foot of it, says the word of 
God. He sojourned in it as a pilgrim, and a 
stranger, having n<* inheritance in it. He had to 
purchase even a burying-place for Sarah his com¬ 
panion. Though Abraham, as he passes through the 
land in the length and breadth of it, is bid to look 
as far as his eye could extend in each point of the 
compass ; and God promises to give it to him and 
his seed for an everlasting possession ; yet in the 
special providence of God, he is careful to have the 
fact recorded, that Abraham must buy even a burying- 
place ; so that not only Abraham, but the children of 
the covenant, might understand that the promise was 
not to be fulfilled in the flesh. 

The natural heart always claiming the fulfilment 
of the promise in the flesh, it became a source of 
great stumbling to the Jewish church. And it is 
still a fruitful source of stumbling even in the Chris¬ 
tian church. 

It was the most offensive doctrine that could be 
brought before the unbelieving Jew, that the promise 
to Abraham of the inheritance, was to be fulfilled in. 
the resurrection state. 

When the council of the seventy elders of the 
Jewish church, the Grand .Sanhedrim, were assem¬ 
bled to try Stephen, the first Christian martyr who 
fell a victim to their rage, he brought forward this 
truth in his defence, to prove the resurrection of the 


THE LOCATION. 


87 


dead. He declared that God had not yet fulfilled 
that promise to Abraham of the land. He says, 
Acts vii. 2-5, “ Men, brethren, and Fathers, hearken, 
the God of glory appeared unto our Father Abraham 
when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in 
Charran, and said unto him, get thee out of thy 
country and from thy kindred, and come into the 
land which I shall shew thee. Then came he out of 
the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Charran. 
And from thence, when his father was dead, he 
removed him into this land wherein ye now dwell. 
And he gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so 
much as to set his foot on : yet he promised that he 
would give it to him for a possession, and his seed 
after him, when as yet he had no child.” 

His argument is conclusive, that as God had 
promised to give the land to Abraham, and as he had 
not yet given him so much as to set his foot on, 
Abraham being dead, he must necessarily have a 
resurrection in order to receive the promised inherit¬ 
ance, that the oath and promise of God to Abraham 
might not fail. And while Stephen thus makes his 
way plain to introduce Christ as the true Messiah, 
notwithstanding they had crucified him, he also 
strikes a deathblow at their hope of glory for the 
church in the flesh. 

Stephen further teaches them, that the promise to 
Abraham, that he and his seed should have the land 
for an everlasting inheritance, was not fulfilled by the 
return of their fathers from Egypt into the land of 
Canaan ; and quotes another promise of God to 


88 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Abraham as proof: 6th and 7th verses, “And God 
spake on this wise, that his seed should sojourn in a 
strange land ; and they should bring them into bond¬ 
age, and entreat them evil four hundred years. And 
the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I 
judge, said God : and after that, they shall come forth 
and serve me in this place.” Their return and tem¬ 
poral possession he claimed only fulfilled the promise 
that “ They shall come forth and serve me in this 
place.” Even the Jewish law would have taught them, 
had they heeded it, that their possession was still in the 
future. For God was very careful when he brought 
them from Egypt into the land, to make this truth 
plain to them, that they were not to have their inhe¬ 
ritance till the land should be redeemed, that their 
possession was only temporal, and that they were to 
be tenants, making it a law, saying, “ The land shall 
not be sold for ever ; for the land is mine, for ye are 
strangers and sojourners with me. And in all the 
land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption 
for the land,” Lev. xxv. 23, 24. “The law was a 
shadow of good things to come “ Of the redemp¬ 
tion of the purchased possession, to the praise of his 
glory.” 

Such teaching was the great offence of the gospel 
to the Jewish church. It cut off at once their hope 
of glory and honor for the church in this mortal state ; 
and it applied all those blessed promises given to the 
fathers, of a city to come, which should be made an 
eternal excellency and a glory in all the earth, that 
nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God’s holy moun* 


THE LOCATION. 


89 


tain, to the immortal state, and renewed earth ; and 
it made the condition of enjoying them faith in Jesus, 
and holiness of heart. It was to sustain that hated 
doctrine taught by the Saviour himself, that their 
Jerusalem should be destroyed, instead of being made 
glorious, and that it should be trodden down of the 
Gentiles during all probation, or till the time of the 
Gentiles should be fulfilled. This was the doctrinal 
part of Stephen’s discourse. The remainder was his¬ 
torical, showing them that their fathers had taken the 
same corrupting view of God’s promises, and thereby 
had been turned to idolatry. “ Ye stiff-necked and 
uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist 
the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.” 

The apostle Paul gives the same testimony, and if 
possible still more clearly, in his epistle to the Heb. xi. 
8-13, “ By faith Abraham when he was called to go 
out into a place which he should after receive for an 
inheritance, obeyed ; and he went out not knowing 
whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land 
of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in taber¬ 
nacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of 
the same promise.” In the 10th, 11th, and 12th 
verses he enumerates the multitude of the faithful 
seed, and says, 13th verse, “ these all died in the faith 
not having received the promises, but having seen 
them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and 
embraced them, and confessed that they were stran¬ 
gers and pilgrims on the earth.” 

From the above, and from Abraham’s history, we 
learn that he is called of God to go out into a place 


90 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


which he should afterwards receive for an inheritance, 
and the promise was renewed to Isaac and Jacob ; 
and not only they, but all their faithful seed embraced 
the promises, and although they lived in the land, 
they confessed that they were strangers. They saw 
that the time for the promises to be fulfilled was afar 
off ; and all the faithful sons and daughters of Abra¬ 
ham who had been gathered to their fathers previous 
to the apostles’ day, died, believing that God would 
fulfil the promise by giving them the land for an 
everlasting inheritance. We see, therefore, that the 
promise to Abraham and to his seed remains to be 
fulfilled when the meek shall inherit the earth. 

When shall they inherit it ? When the “ Son of 
man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather 
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them 
which do iniquity ; and shall cast them into a fur¬ 
nace of fire : there shall be wailing and gnashing of 
teeth ; then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their father then shall the meek 
inherit the earth. 

Our Lord represents the Jews as only tenants, not 
owners or inheritors of the land, but liable to be 
turned away at the will of the Owner, as husbandmen 
who had taken a vineyard. “ And when the time of 
the fruit drew near he sent his servants to the hus¬ 
bandmen, that they might receive the fruit of it. 
And the husbandmen took his servants and beat one, 
and killed another, and stoned another. Again he 
sent other servants more than the first; and they did 
unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto 


THE LOCATION. 


91 


them his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son. 
But when the husbandmen saw the Son, they said 
among themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill 
him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they 
caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard and 
slew him.” Jesus informs them that they should be 
rejected from being tenants, and should be de¬ 
stroyed. 

But the promise to Abraham was like the promise 
which Jesus gave to the meek, unconditional, immu¬ 
table, “ Blessed are the meek ; for they shall inherit 
the earth.” And to Abraham he says, “ To thee will 
I give it, and to thy seed for ever ;—Arise, walk 
through the land in the length of it and in the breadth 
of it; for I will give it unto thee.” But the great 
mass of the Jewish Church ever looking for the ful¬ 
filment of the promises in the flesh, they resisted the 
teaching of the Holy Ghost, so touchingly and deeply 
impressed upon the father of the faithful in the offer¬ 
ing up of Isaac. Abraham having been previously 
informed that “ in Isaac shall thy seed be called,” is 
commanded to offer him to God as a burnt offering. 
And his faith staggered not, “ accounting that God 
was able to raise him up even from the dead ; from 
whence also he received him in a figure ;” showing 
most clearly that it was through death and the resur¬ 
rection that they were to receive the promised inherit¬ 
ance. Isaac being a type of the true seed, Christ 
the only begotten of the Father, a deep and lasting 
impression is made by the price of man’s redemption ; 
while it for ever connects it with the redemption of 


92 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


his inheritance. So the apostle teaches, Eph. i. 12-14, 
“ That we should be to the praise of his glory who 
first trusted in Christ. In whom ye also trusted, 
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of 
your salvation ; in whom also, after that ye believed, 
ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 
which is the earnest of our inheritance until the 
redemption of the purchased possession, unto the 
praise of his glory. 77 Here we are informed that 
when we believe in Christ, who is the true promised 
seed of Abraham, we are sealed with that promised 
Holy Spirit, who is our Earnest, our Pledge, till our 
possession shall be redeemed. 

What possession has man lost which is to be 
redeemed ? The only one he ever had ; the earth. 
The earth was given him when it was so beautiful and 
glorious that God pronounced it very good ; and of 
man he said, “ let them have dominion over all 
the earth. 77 This lost and forfeited dominion, the 
Apostle teaches above, that Christ has purchased 
and will redeem it from the curse. Though Christ 
has inherited it as the true seed of Abraham, it being 
still under the curse, he has paid the price of its 
redemption. 

Cowper has expressed the same in the following 
lines : 

“ It was thine 

By ancient covenant, ere Nature’s birth ; 

And thou hast made it thine by purchase since, 

And overpaid its value with thy blood.” 


The Apostle Paul claims that Abraham 7 s promised 


TIIE LOCATION. 


93 


inheritance included the whole earth, “ For the 
promise that he should be the heir of the world was 
not to Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but 
through the righteousness of faith,” Rom. iv. 13. 
Again he says, “ And if ye be Christ’s then are ye 
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” 
The meek being the children of Christ, who is the 
son of Abraham. Therefore said the Saviour, 
“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the 
earth.” 

Hence the saints sing of the location of their 
inheritance, Rev. v. 9-10, “ And they sung a new 
song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and 
to open the seals thereof; for thou wast slain, and 
hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every 
kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; and 
hast made us unto our God kings and priests; and 
we shall reign on the earth.” 


CHAPTER IX. 


THE SECOND ADAM. 

“ And so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul, 
the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. The first man is of the 
earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.”—1 Cor. 
xv. 45, 47. 

Man was originally invested with royalty. God 
created him in his own image, and placed him at the 
head of all things on the earth. This earth was his 
peaceful dominion. God said, “ Let us make man in 
our image after our likeness, and let them have 
dominion .... over all the earth.”—Gen. i. 26. 

This earth was designed for his abode, it was 
adapted to his nature, and his nature was adapted to 
it. This is evident from the fact that “ God saw 
every thing that he had made ; and behold it was 
very good.” 

Man’s power being delegated to him, his right to 
reign as the lord and king of the earth was condi¬ 
tional ; and the first Adam lost his dominion in con¬ 
sequence of sin. The earth, his heritage, was cursed, 
its glory and beauty were tarnished, and its rightful 
sovereign was supplanted. Discontent, rebellion, 
hatred, sickness, pain, sorrow, and death, became the 
patrimony of man. Being thus fallen and depraved, 
with no power to save themselves, their only hope 


THE SECOND ADAM. 


95 


was in the promise of the second Adam, who is the 
Lord from heaven. 

The first Adam being put in possession of this*earth 
as his heritage and dominion, and by sin lost it, with 
his life ; the second Adam must redeem and possess 
the lost dominion, the very same dominion; other¬ 
wise he cannot be the second Adam. For if Christ 
takes possession of a new territory for himself and 
his redeemed people, of that new territory he will be 
the first Adam ; as there cannot be a second without 
a first. But Christ being the second-Adam, this earth 
must therefore be the territorial dominion which he 
will possess, and over which he shall reign with his 
people. 

And when the great work of redemption is accom¬ 
plished, the children of the second Adam will be 
restored to that royalty from which they fell; and in 
accomplishing which it becomes as necessary that 
Christ should reign on this earth in the person of 
humanity, as that in the person of our nature he 
should suffer on this earth. “ And thou, 0 Tower of 
the flock, the stronghold of the daughter of Zion, 
unto thee shall it come, even the first dominion ; the 
kingdom shall come to the daughter of Jerusalem.”— 
Micah iv. 8. 

In this verse Christ is the person addressed. 
“ And thou, 0 Tower of the flock,” the first dominion 
shall come to thee. The prophet asserts that the 
dominion originally given to Adam shall come to 
Christ, the second Adam, the Tower of the flock, the 
Hope of the church. And “ the kingdom shall come 


96 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


to the daughter of Jerusalem,” the church. That is, 
through Christ the second Adam, the people of God 
shall be restored to that royalty, and established in 
their dominion. Hence the song of the redeemed, 
“ And hath made us unto our God kings and priests, 
and we shall reign on the earth.” 


THE SECOND ADAM. 

This is one of the titles our Saviour bears among 
his many precious names : which is given in refer¬ 
ence to the character he will sustain in the regene¬ 
rated earth, as its Lord and rightful Sovereign ; the 
great head of the family of the redeemed. 

All that was lost in the first Adam, shall be more 
than made up to the children of the second Adam. 

As the first Adam is the great head and progeni¬ 
tor of the human family in this corrupted and fallen 
earth, so the second Adam shall be, The Everlast¬ 
ing Father of the redeemed in the earth renewed, 
“ the world to come.” 

As we derive from the first Adam our natural life 
through the blood, “thou shalt not eat the blood 
thereof, for that is the life thereof,” saith God ; so 
also from the second Adam we receive our spiritual 
life, through the Spirit. “ If any man have not the 
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” By the same 
Spirit he shall make alive our mortal bodies in his 
glorious likeness. He is “ a quickening Spirit.” 

Through the first Adam we lost our life with that 
state of blessedness and purity, and in their place we 


THE SECOND ADAM. 


97 


inherit misery, corruption, and death ; “ wherefore, as 
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by 
sin, and so death passed upon all men, for that all 
have sinned.” But the children of the second Adam 
shall escape the second death, misery and corruption, 
and shall inherit eternal life, blessedness and glory. 

In the first Adam we lost the glorious image of 
God, but the redeemed shall put on that heavenly 
beauty again through the second Adam. “ I shall be 
satisfied when I awake with thy likeness,” says 
David. And Paul says, that Christ “shall change 
our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body, according to the working whereby he 
is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” 

In the first Adam we lost our inheritance ; it was 
forfeited and cursed; but the second Adam has 
“purchased the possession” ^and will remove the 
curse, and restore it to its Eden state. “ He that sat 
upon the throne saith, behold I make all things 
new.” And there shall be no more curse. 

Through Eve, “ the mother of all living,” who was 
the first in the transgression, a usurper obtained the 
possession; “ the Prince of this world,” that old 
Serpent, the Devil. But the second Adam is the 
seed of the woman who shall bruise the serpent's 
head. “A stronger than he shall bind the strong 
man and divide the spoil.” 

“The law having a shadow of good things to 
come.” The law said, “If a man die having no 
children, his brother shall marry his wife and raise 
up seed unto his brother upon the inheritance of the 


98 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


dead, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.” 
The first Adam forfeited his life, and with him the 
inheritance would have ceased to have had a name 
upon it. But the second Adam has espoused his 
brother’s cause, to raise up the name of the dead upon 
his inheritance.” 

This is beautifully exemplified in Boaz, when he 
would take Ruth to be his wife, the widow of his 
kinsman. But he must redeem with her the inherit¬ 
ance of her former husband, which had been for¬ 
feited. He first offered it to a nearer relative, 
saying, “ if thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if 
thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may 
know ; for there is none to redeem it besides thee ; 
and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it. 
Then said Boaz, what day thou buyest the field of the 
hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the 
Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name 
of the dead upon his inheritance. And the kinsman 
said, I cannot redeem it for myself lest I mar my 
own inheritance : redeem thou my right to thyself; 
for I cannot redeem it.” Then “ Boaz said unto the 
elders, and unto all the people, ye are witnesses this 
day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and 
all that was Chilion’s and Malon’s, of the hand of 
Naomi. Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of 
Malon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up 
the name of the dead upon his inheritance, that the 
name of the dead be not cut off from among his 
brethren, and from the gates of his place: ye are 
witnesses this day. And all the people that were in 


THE SECOND ADAM. 


99 


the gate and the elders said, we are witnesses/ 7 
Ruth iv. 

Thus the law shadowed forth that endearing rela¬ 
tion which shall exist between Christ and his people, 
as the Bride and Bridegroom, and also that in re¬ 
deeming her he will redeem her inheritance. 

“ Thus saith the Lord to the Church, Fear not; 
for thou shalt not be ashamed ; neither be thou con¬ 
founded ; for thou shalt not be put to shame; for 
thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not 
remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. 
For thy Maker is thine husband : the Lord of hosts 
is his name; and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of 
Israel; the God of the whole earth shall he be 
called. 77 —Isaiah liv. 4, 5. 

The context shows that when her Husband and 
Redeemer shall be called the God of the whole earth, 
will be after the days of her affliction, after the time 
when she will condemn all her foes in judgment. 
“ Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage 
supper of the Lamb. 77 

There is a beauty and consistency in this truth, 
that the earth shall be the habitation of the saints. 
It shows that the above Jewish law was not an un¬ 
meaning ceremony, and that many declarations of the 
Scriptures commonly allowed to be hyperbolical or 
poetical expressions, are plain truth, full of meaning. 
And it also shows that God will not be thwarted in 
his great purpose in creating this earth. 

God has said, “ the earth abideth for ever. 77 It 
will not be annihilated because of the adversary. 


100 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


“ For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens ; 
God himself that formed the earth and made it, he 
hath established it, he created it not in vain ; he 
formed it to be inhabited ; I am the Lord, and there 
is none else.” And with this view of God’s truth, 
“ the sweet psalmist of Israel” sings ; not only in 
“ the Spirit, but with the understanding also 

“ But the meek shall inherit the earth, and shall 

delight themselves in the abundance of peace. 

The Lord knoweth the days of the upright, and their 


inheritance shall be for ever.For such as be 

blessed of him shall inherit the earth ; and they that 
be cursed of him shall be cut off. .... For the 


Lord loveth judgment, and forsaketh not his saints ; 
they are preserved for ever ; but the seed of the 
wicked shall be cut off. The righteous shall inherit 

the land and dwell therein for ever.Wait on 

the Lord, and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to 
inherit the land ; when the wicked are cut off, thou 
shalt see it.”—Ps. xxxvii. 

From the above it is clear, that the Psalmist under¬ 
stood that this earth would be renewed and become 
the abode of the righteous. 

And now, dear reader, if you have not the spirit 
of Christ, if you have not been adopted into the 
family of the second Adam, through whom God now 
holds out to you the offer of returning to loyalty, seek 
at once to be adopted into his family, that you 
may become an heir to that inheritance through Him 
who has purchased the forfeited possessions ; by 
whom and for whom it was created. And who has 






THE SECOND ADAM. 


101 


promised to renew it as of old, “ when the morning 
stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy.” Yes, more ; for under his renewing hand 
the inheritance shall become incorruptible, the beauty 
and glory of which shall never fade. You shall thus 
be restored to that princely royalty, and shall know 
how glorious was that state which God pronounced 
very good. And £ ‘ when he shall come to be glorified 
in his saints, and to be admired in all them that 
believe,” you shall be where he is, and shall behold 
his glory ; even the glory of the-second Adam, the 
King of Glory, who shall have by his own mighty 
power obliterated every trace of the fall, so that 
nothing shall hurt or destroy in all God’s holy moun¬ 
tain, and shall, in the plenitude of his Grace, crown 
his ransomed ones with eternal glory and gladness, 
and shall shed universal and unfading beauty over 
the renovated world ; which shall be the heritage of 
the people of God, under the righteous reign of the 
“ second Adam, the Lord from Heaven.” 


“ Thus heavenward all things tend, for all were once 
Perfect, and all must be at length restored. 

So God has greatly purposed ; who would else 
In his dishonoured works himself endure 
Dishonor, and be wronged, without redress. 

Haste, then, and wheel away a shattered world, 

Ye slow revolving seasons! We would see 
(A sight to which our eyes are strangers yet) 

A world that does not dread and hate his laws, 

And suffer for its crime; would learn how fair 
The creature is that God pronounces good; 

How pleasant in itself, what pleases him. 


102 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 

Here every drop of honey hides a sting, 

Worms wind themselves into our sweetest flowers, 
And even the joy that haply some poor heart 
Derives from heaven, pure as the fountain is, 

Is sullied in the stream; taking a taint 
From touch of human lips, at best impure. 

Oh for a world in principle as chaste 
As this is gross and selfish! over which 
Custom and prejudice shall bear no sway, 

That govern all things here, shouldering aside 
The meek and modest truth, and forcing her 
To seek a refuge from the tongue of strife 
In nooks obscure, far from the ways of men; 
Where violence shall never lift the sword, 

Nor cunning justify the proud man’s wrong, 
Leaving the poor no remedy but tears. 

Come then, and, added to thy many crowns, 
Receive yet one, the crown of all the earth, 

Thou who alone art worthy.”— Cowper. 


CHAPTER X. 


THE EARTH RENEWED. 

“ Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for a new heaven 
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness.”— 2 Pet. iii. 13. 

In the fifth verse of this chapter the Apostle brings 
a very solemn charge against a class of persons who 
would be willingly ignorant of certain truths, a 
part of which is contained in the above text. 

He says, “ For this they willingly are ignorant of, 
that by the word of God the heavens were of old, 
and the earth standing out of the water and in the 
water : whereby the world that then was being over¬ 
flowed with water, perished : but the heavens and the 
earth which are now, by the same word are kept in 
store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment 
and perdition of ungodly men.” 

The Apostle argues that notwithstanding some do 
not consider the coming destruction in the light of 
the former one by the flood, but suppose this earth 
will be so destroyed that it will become useless after 
the burning day, being willingly ignorant on the sub¬ 
ject ; and others doubt its ever burning, saying, 
“ where is the promise of his coming ? for since the 
fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were 
from the beginning of the creation.” Yet Peter con¬ 
cludes that as truly as the earth arose from the bap- 


104 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


tism of the flood, cleansed from its wicked inhabitants 
to become the habitation of those righteous persons 
saved so also, although the earth, is now by the word 
of the same God “ kept in store, reserved unto fire 
against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly 
men, 77 when “ the elements shall melt with fervent 
heat, the earth also, and the works that are therein 
shall be burned up, 77 yet as truly by the power of him 
who baptized it with water, shall the earth arise again 
from its baptism of fire, cleansed, regenerated, beau¬ 
tified, a new earth, the dwelling-place of the right¬ 
eous, who shall be saved in the day of his wrath. So 
He who sat upon the Throne has said, “Behold I 
make all things new. 77 And although it will be the 
same matter which composes this present earth, yet it 
will be as truly a new earth, as he who believing on 
the Lord Jesus Christ becomes a “ new creature, 77 
being baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire. 
Peter informs us in the text, that all this will take 
place according to the promise of God. 

All the prophets have spoken of the restitution of 
this earth more or less distinctly, but Isaiah has 
recorded more clearly this promise. “ For behold I 
create new heavens and a new earth : and the former 
shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But 
be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I cre¬ 
ate : for behold I create Jerusalem a rejoicing and 
her people a joy. And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, 
and joy in my people : and the voice of weeping shall 
be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. 77 — 
Isaiah lxv. 17-19. 


THE EARTH RENEWED. 


105 


How changed the circumstances of God’s people 
from this to the new earth. During probation the 
church is known as an afflicted and suffering people. 
In this state God addresses her with, “ 0 thou afflicted, 
tossed with tempest, and not comforted,” but then, 
“Jerusalem shall be a rejoicing, and her people a 
joy.” Then the days of her weeping and her mourn¬ 
ing shall be ended. “ For as the new heavens and the 
new earth which I will make, shall remain before me, 
saith the Lord, so shall your seed and your name 
remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one 
new-moon to another, and from one Sabbath day to 
another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, 
saith the Lord. And they shall go forth and look 
upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed 
against me where their worm shall not die, neither 
shall their fire be quenched ; and they shall be an 
abhorring to all flesh.”—Isaiah lxvi. 22-24. 

Some have applied the above scripture to the mil¬ 
lennial state, perhaps correctly. It is certainly a 
state of things on the earth, as the well known signs 
of the earth are given, “ the new moon and Sabbath 
day.” And if it is a description of the millennial 
state, then are we sure that the millennium takes 
place after the resurrection and judgment; for it is 
after the wicked are doomed to their unending 
punishment; and the righteous have entered upon 
their eternal state of blessedness. “ The voice of 
weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice 
of crying.” But we conclude that it is even after 
the millennium, in that glorious and blessed restitu- 
5* 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


106 

tion, when the oath of God shall be verified. “ As 
truly as I live all the earth shall be filled with the 
glory of the Lord.” 

Ezekiel gives a very clear testimony in the 37th 
chapter of his prophecy, that this earth will become 
the final abode of the saints. He was among the 
captives carried to Babylon ; and being a prophet, he 
sought to comfort his brethren in their deep afflic¬ 
tion, in their captivity, with the promise that they 
should go back to Jerusalem, their loved and happy 
home. 

But there was no power in his words to comfort 
them, for they knew that Jeremiah had prophesied 
that seventy years should be accomplished in their 
affliction, before they should return. They knew 
well that in cruel Babylonish slavery they would go 
quickly down to death ; that their bones would be 
bleached in that torrid zone before the seventy years 
would be accomplished. 

The captives were of those who had walked in the 
highest circles of life, in that refined city Jerusalem. 
The Princes, the Nobles, all the most refined and 
intelligent of Jerusalem had been carried away ; the 
lower class alone had been left to till the land for 
their conqueror. 

How depressing! How humiliating was their 
sudden change! From the social circle, from the 
feast, from the merry dance, from their home and 
country, they were driven to a foreign land, to do 
the work of menial slaves. Those young men and 
maidens whose fingers had been taught to draw forth 


THE EARTH RENEWED. 


107 


the sweet melodies of David’s harp of heavenly 
sound, are now made to do heathen drudgery, and 
the crushing service of slaves. 

Ezekiel informs them that the time would come 
when they would go back to Jerusalem ; but they 
remembered the prophecy of Jeremiah, that seventy 
years should be accomplished in their afflictions, and 
they groaned in despair, saying, “ Our bones are 
dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our 
parts.” Seventy years! Our children may see the 
day, but we shall go into the grave long before that 
time. Our hope is lost; and we are cut off from our 
part in the inheritance promised to Abraham and his 
seed. 

God had sent them into captivity for their good, 
to teach them what they would not learn in pros¬ 
perity. They had become lifted up in their pride 
and glory, and claimed the land as theirs ; they had 
rejected the word of God, who had said, “ The land 
is mine, and ye are strangers and sojourners with 
me;” and they had turned from God to the service 
of Satan, “ the Prince of this world,” by which their 
minds had become so darkened that they could not 
see the way to their inheritance through the promised 
seed, that their Lord who had given the promise to 
Abraham must himself, in the person of the promised 
seed, “ purchase the possession,” that they and their 
land must be redeemed by the offering of himself, and 
that through the resurrection they would enter it, as 
their father David and the prophets had often sung. 
They had resisted the teachings of the Holy Ghost, 


108 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


as Stephen has said, which had been so deeply 
fastened upon the mind of Abraham, in the offering 
of Isaac, the type of the true seed. But now they 
learn, in sad reality, what they would not learn in 
prosperity, “ That they were strangers and sojourners 
on the earth. 77 

But God is not indifferent to the sufferings of his 
people. His eye is ever open to behold their afflic¬ 
tions ; he hears their cries and their groans, “ and 
though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion 
according to the multitude of his mercies. For he 
does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of 
men. 77 

Now, Ezekiel is sent with a message which would 
reach their case, causing even the old men to rejoice, 
who were bending with the heavy burden of slavery 
over the grave. He sends him to preach the message 
which Paul calls “ the hope of Israel, 77 the resurrec¬ 
tion of the dead, and their return to Zion with songs 
of praise and everlasting joy upon their heads. 

God is careful that Ezekiel’s mind is thoroughly 
imbued with the spirit of his mission. He causes 
him to see a vision of the resurrection of the dead, 
that going from the scene he would come before the 
people in the Spirit of the subject. Ezekiel says: 
“ The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried 
me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in 
the midst of the valley which was full of bones, and 
caused me to pass by them round about: and behold, 
there was very many in the open valley ; and lo, they 
were very dry. And he said unto me, Son'of man, 


THE EARTH RENEWED. 


109 


can these bones live ? and I answered, 0 Lord God, 
thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy 
upon these bones, and say unto them, 0 ye dry bones, 
hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord 
unto these bones : Behold, I will cause breath to 
enter into you, and ye shall live ; and I will lay 
sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, 
and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and 
ye shall live ; and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 
So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath 
came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their 
feet, an exceeding great army.” This is the vision, 
and we need not be'in doubt of what it teaches, for 
God immediately explained it to his servant. 

“ Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones 
are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our 
bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off 
for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto 
them, Thus saith the Lord God ; Behold, 0 my peo¬ 
ple, I will open your graves, and cause you to come 
up out of your graves, and bring you into the land 
of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the Lord, 
when I have opened your graves, 0 my people, and 
brought you up out of your graves, and shall put my 
Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you 
in our own land : then shall ye know that I the Lord 
have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.” 

This is the explanation which God gave Ezekiel of 
the vision, and we need nothing plainer to show that 
the earth will be the final abode of the redeemed. 
“ Behold, 0 my people, I will open your graves, and 


110 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


cause you to come up out of your graves, and will 
bring you into the land of Israel ” Not away into a 
foreign dominion, “ but into your own land,” the land 
of your fathers. 

This vision has been otherwise explained by some, 
in such a manner as to make it teach the return of 
the Jews somewhere down near the end of time ; 
and while we would pay due deference to the 
teachings of wise men, yet where God has explained, 
all other explanations, however interesting, are of 
no authority. The above is God’s own explanation 
to Ezekiel, to whom he gave the vision. And 
it needs not the touch of any man’s pen to make it 
more plain ; it has in it that clearness and beauty 
of simplicity, characteristic of those explanations 
which he has been pleased to give of parables and 
visions. It commends itself to the heart and under¬ 
standing ; it being so suitable to the case of his 
people doomed to seventy years’ captivity in Babylon¬ 
ish slavery, only about ten of which had expired.— 
Jer. xxv. 11. 

0 my people, cast not away your hope ; your 
bones will not bleach in Babylon for ever; you are 
not cut off from your part in the promise to Abraham. 
What if ye die in slavery ? I sent you into slavery 
in order to wean your affections from those things 
which perish ; and I design by it to turn your hearts 
from idols to me, that you may understand what I 
commanded you, that “ ye are strangers and sojourn¬ 
ers in the land with me,” as did your father Abra¬ 
ham, who was a stranger and a pilgrim in the land 


THE EARTH RENEWED. 


Ill 


of promise ; having no inheritance in it, he looked for 
one to come, for a city which has foundations, the 
Holy City which shall come down from God out of 
heaven ; when all your enemies shall be destroyed 
and my kingdom shall come. Then, 0 my people, I 
will open your graves and I will bring you up out 
of your graves, and I will bring you, my sons and 
daughters, from the east, and from the west, and 
from the north, and from the south, and you shall sit 
down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the king¬ 
dom of God. And when I shall have accomplished 
this, you shall know that I the Lord your God have 
done it, and have done it for your good. Although 
your enemies think they have done it, and they think 
to crush you. Be still, 0 my people, and know 
that I your God have done it. Do not cast away 
your hope, and feel that your bones are dried, that 
you are cut off from your inheritance. 

Such comfort coming from the servant of God as 
he repeats the message to them, could cause them, in 
deep affliction, to lift their bowed heads and humbled 
souls, and rejoice with gratitude in God their Saviour, 
even for their trials. Now they can say, it is good 
for us that we are afflicted ; for before we were 
afflicted we went astray. 

But suppose the common exposition true, that is, 
some time down near the end of time, long after the 
seventy years are up, hundreds and hundreds of 
years afterwards, when their descendants are scat¬ 
tered among all nations for rejecting the Messiah, 
God shall cause them to return to Jerusalem again. 


112 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Would such a message be consolation, or of any 
use to that afflicted people, suffering in despair, and 
in cruel Babylonish slavery ? 

“ The wisdom of the wise is foolishness with God.” 
If the knowledge of the saints’ inheritance had not 
been lost sight of, no person would have thus 
explained a vision which God had clearly explained ; 
but it became necessary, as the exposition which God 
gave contradicts positively the theory that the saints’ 
heaven is away somewhere, as the church has long 
sung, “beyond the bounds of time and space.” 
Though the heaven and the earth are dissolved 
with fire, “nevertheless we, according to his promise, 
look for a new heavens, and a new earth wherein 
dwelleth righteousness.” 


“ So shall the world go on, 

To good malignant, to bad men benign, 

Under her own weight groaning: till the day 
Appear of reparation to the just, 

And vengeance to the wicked ; at return 
Of him—thy Saviour and thy Lord; 

Last in the clouds from heaven, to be revealed 
In glory of the Father, to dissolve 
Satan, with his perverted world: then raise 
From the conflagrant mass, purged and refined, 
New heavens, new earth, ages of endless date, 
Founded in righteousness, and peace, and love, 
To bring forth fruits, joy and eternal bliss.” 

Milton. 


CHAPTER XI. 


THE TWO HOUSES OP ISRAEL. 

“ And he shall be for a sanctuary: but for a stone of stumbling 
and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and 
for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them 
shall stumble and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.” 
—Isaiah viii. 14, 15. 

The being who shall be for a sanctuary, a covert 
from the storm and the wrath, for a hiding place, 
u till the indignation be over past,” to one class ; and 
to the other class, a stone of stumbling and a rock of 
offence, is no other than the Lord of hosts Himself. 
While the lives of his people are hid with Christ in 
God, He is a consuming fire to those who are with¬ 
out. The preaching of Christ is to the Jew a stum¬ 
bling-block, and to the Greek foolishness; but to 
them who believe, the power of God and wisdom of 
God. 

But the text is a prophecy respecting the visible 
church, including both Jewish and Christian, under 
the title of the two houses of Israel. This applica¬ 
tion of the prophecy is confirmed by New Testament 
writers which will be adduced in its place. It is evi¬ 
dently figurative language. Christ was not literally 
a stone of stumbling and rock of offence, or a gin and 
a snare, but by a wrong application of the promises of 


114 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Christ’s coming they stumble morally. The two 
houses of Israel are also used in a figurative sense, to 
represent the Jewish and Christian church. 

This great and natural division of the church was 
pointed out by Inspiration in a very early age. The 
first which shall be adduced is found in the blessing 
of the sons of Joseph by the Patriarch Jacob. There 
is something very peculiar in the blessing which he 
pronounced upon these two sons.—Gen. xlviii. 

He says to Joseph, “ Thy two sons, Ephraim and 
Manasseh, which were born unto thee in the land of 
Egypt, before I came unto thee into Egypt, are mine : 
as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine. And thy 
issue, which thou begettest after them, shall be thine, 
and shall be called after the name of their brethren 

in their inheritance.Now the eyes of Israel 

were dim for age, so that he could not see, and he 
brought them near unto him ; and he kissed them, 
and embraced them. And Israel said unto Joseph, I 
had not thought to see thy face: and lo, God hath 
showed me also thy seed. And Joseph brought them 
out from between his knees, and he bowed himself 
with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them 
both, Ephraim in his right hand towards Israel’s left 
hand, and Manasseh in his left hand towards Israel’s 
right hand, and brought them near unto him. And 
Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon 
Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left 
hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wit¬ 
tingly ; for Manasseh was the first-born. 

“ And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom 



THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


115 


my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God 
who fed me all my life long unto this day, the Angel 
which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads ; and 
let my name be named on them, and the name of my 
fathers Abraham and Isaac : and let them grow into 
a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when 
Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon 
the head of Ephraim, it displeased him : and he held 
up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s 
head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto 
his father, not so, my father : for this is the first-born ; 
put thy right hand upon his head. And his father 
refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he 
also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: 
but truly his younger brother shall be greater than 
he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. 
And he blessed them that day, saying, in thee shall 
Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and 
Manasseh : and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.” 

In a literal sense the history of Ephraim’s descend¬ 
ants will not justify the expression, a “ multitude of 
nations neither did he excel Manasseh so much 
as to call forth this superior blessing of the Patriarch. 
Israel was blind in his age, and could not discern 
the lads, and Joseph presents the eldest to his right 
hand, but Inspiration directs, and he crosses his hands, 
placing his right hand on the head of the younger ; 
and his blessing is far superior to the elder, so that 
Joseph would interpose, and remove his father’s right 
hand from the younger to the elder, saying, “ This, 
my father, is the eldest son,” but his father replied, 


116 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


“ I know it, my son, I know it; he also shall become 
a people, and he shall be great; but truly his younger 
brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall 
become a multitude of nations.” 

But consider these two sons of Joseph, whose • 
mother was a Gentile woman, as representatives of 
the Jewish and Gentile Churches, and there is a 
beauty in the prophecy which has been strikingly ful¬ 
filled. The Christian, or younger Church, has far 
excelled the Jewish Church in its blessings, its privi¬ 
leges, its superior light and prosperity. It has 
spread among many nations. The Jewish Church 
has been great, but the Christian has truly been 
greater ; so that in many respects the first has been 
last, and the last first. 

The Patriarch says, “ Let my name be named on 
them.” The name of Israel has never been any more 
especially given to Ephraim and Manasseh, than to 
their brethren. But the name of Israel has been a 
special name given to both the Jewish and Christian 
Church, and the fulfilment of the prophecy thus 
applied is complete. 

Does not the Patriarch also allude to the two 
Churches in blessing Joseph, the father of the two 
sons, whose wife was a Gentile, under the beautiful 
emblem of the vine? He says, “ Joseph is a fruitful 
bough, even a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches 
run over the wall.” Is there not here an allusion to 
that “ middle wall of partition ” between the Jews 
and the Gentiles, which we are informed that our 
Lord has broken down ? 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


117 


This same division of the Church runs through all 
the prophets. They frequently commence with a 
prophecy which applies especially to the Jewish 
Church, and then immediately glance at the Chris¬ 
tian Church as the antitype, and apply nearly the 
same to it. Keeping this in view the prophets are 
more easily understood. Paul, speaking of the his¬ 
tory of the Jewish Church, while in the wilderness, 
says, “ Now all these things happened unto them for 
ensamples : and they are written for our admonition, 
upon whom the ends of the world are come.”—1 Cor. 
x. 11. 

The Apostle has also taken up the subject of the 
text, and confirmed this view, making what Isaiah 
calls the two houses of Israel, the Jewish and Chris¬ 
tian Churches, Heb. iii. 1-6. The New Testament 
must be our commentary for the Old, in all places 
where it has spoken on the subject. He says, 
u Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heaven¬ 
ly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of 
our profession, Christ Jesus. Who was faithful to 
him, who appointed him, as also Moses was faithful 
in all his house. . . . And Moses verily was faithful in 
all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those 
things which are to be spoken after. But Christ as 
a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we 
hold fast the confidence, and the rejoicing of the hope 
firm unto the end.” 

This testimony from the Apostle makes the subject 
very clear, that the Jewish and Gentile Churches are 
the two houses of Israel. Moses is represented as 


118 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


being faithful over his house, the Jewish Church, as 
a servant, and Christ as a Son over his own house, 
the Christian Church. There were not two Jewish 
houses of Israel in being when Christ came ; there¬ 
fore the two houses of which Paul speaks are the only 
two on which the prophecy could be fulfilled. 

By referring to Ezek. xxxvii. the reader will see 
that the prophet takes the name of Ephraim to repre¬ 
sent the Christian Church, and that of Judah to 
represent the Jewish Church. He keeps in view the 
same great division under the figure of two sticks. 

He says, “The word of the Lord came unto me 
again, saying, moreover thou son of man, take the 
one stick, and write upon it for Judah, and for the 
children of Israel his companions ; then take another 
stick and write upon it for Joseph, the stick of 
Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his com¬ 
panions. And join them one to another into one 
stick ; and they shall become one in thy hand. And 
when the children of thy people shall speak unto 
thee, saying, wilt thou not show us what thou 
meanest by these ? Say unto them, thus saith the 
Lord God; behold I will take the stick of Joseph 
which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of 
Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even 
with the stick of Judah, and will make them one 
stick, and they shall be one in my hand... And I will 
make them one nation in the land upon the moun¬ 
tains of Israel, and one king shall be king to them 
all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither 
shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


119 


all. And David my servant shall be king over 
them : and they shall have one shepherd : they shall 
also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, 
and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that 
I have given unto Jacob my servant wherein your 
fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein 
even they and their children, and their children’s 
children for ever ; and my servant David shall be 
their prince for ever.” 

David, the king of Israel, had been dead many 
years when Ezekiel uttered this prophecy ; therefore, 
the David who is to reign over them is the son 
of David, the Messiah, the King of Israel. And the 
time when He shall reign will be at the great 
gathering of the subjects of his kingdom. When he 
shall send forth his angels and gather his elect, from 
among both Jews and Gentiles ; at which time they 
shall have one Shepherd ; for Christ shall be both 
Shepherd and King. “ My tabernacle also shall be 
with them : yea, I will be their God, and they shall 
be my people.” This is the same language which 
the Revelator also applies to the heavenly state. 

The testimony of Christ also confirms this appli¬ 
cation. He keeps in view the same great division 
and the same final union : but he brings still another 
figure to represent the two houses, or the Jewish and 
Gentile churches ; he calls them two folds. John x. 
16, He says, “ Other sheep I have which are not of 
this fold : them also I must bring ; and they shall 
hear my voice ; and there shall be one fold and one 
Shepherd.” 


120 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


The prophet says that in that day they shall have 
one King and one Shepherd, and Christ says, one 
fold and one Shepherd ; they both evidently allude 
to the final gathering of his people in the everlasting 
kingdom. 

There is more proof that might be brought for¬ 
ward, some of which will be seen as we pursue the 
subject, in the application which the Saviour makes 
of it; but the above is sufficient to prove that the 
two houses in the text are the Jewish and Gentile 
churches. 

Oh then, awake, awake, let the Gentile church 
awake, and read her fearful doom. “ And he shall 
be for a sanctuary ; but for a stone of stumbling 
and for a rock of offence to both the houses of 
Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants 
of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, 
and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be 
taken.” 

Though this prophecy by Isaiah was given some 
seven or eight hundred years before its terrible 
fulfilment was accomplished on the first house, the 
Jewish church, yet in due time it was fully verified. 
They misunderstood the promises of Christ’s coming ; 
they had dwelt especially on those promises that 
refer to his second coming to reign gloriously, 
which they applied to this corruptible state, over¬ 
looking his coming in humiliation to suffer, so that 
he proved to them a stone of stumbling and a rock 
of offence. And the mass of the Jewish church, 
even their learned Doctors and Scribes' “ the 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


121 


Duilders rejected the stone which became the head 
of the cornerthey stumbled and fell, and were 
broken and snared, and finally destroyed. 

While we can read in their history so dreadful 
and terrible a fulfilment of that part of the prophecy 
which applied to them, shall we flatter ourselves 
that the second house will not stumble and fall ? 
Has God fulfilled the prophecy to the letter thus 
far, and will the remaining part fail ? Will a 
member of the Christian church read this fearful 
prophecy without examining the evidence of his 
acceptance ? If a minister of the gospel, can you 
claim that your life has been more strictly devoted 
than were the Scribes and Pharisees? concerning 
whom Jesus said, except your righteousness exceed 
theirs, “ ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of 
God.” 

Let us consider the testimony of Jesus concerning 
the stone of stumbling. He says (Matt. xxi. 44), 
“ And whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be 
broken ; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will 
grind him to powder.” 

Christ is that “ stone which the builders rejected, 
the same is become the head of the corner.” Who 
but the Jewish church fell on Christ? They fell on 
him, saying, “ away with him, away with him, crucify 
him, crucify him ;” and they sealed their own fearful 
doom. 

Hear Him, on whom they fell with such dreadful 
malice, as he weeps over their terrible fate. “ And 
when he was come near, he beheld the city and wept 
6 


122 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


over it, saying, if thou hadst known, even thou, at 
least in this thy day, the things which belong unto 
thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. 
For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies 
shall cast a trench about thee, and shall compass thee 
round, and keep thee in on every side, and shall lay 
thee even with the ground, and thy children within 
thee ; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon 
another : because thou knewest not the time of thy 
visitation.”—Luke xix. 41-44. 

They were truly broken, their lovely Jerusalem 
destroyed, and they broken from being a nation or a 
government to this day. And still they are a 
scattered and peeled people ; the full truth of the 
prophecy has come upon them. 

Will not the remaining part of the prophecy be 
fulfilled ? It will be accomplished ; “ not one jot or 
tittle shall in any wise fail till all be fulfilled.” But 
will it fall as heavily upon the second house, or 
Gentile church ? As much heavier as the antitype is 
greater than the type. As much heavier as our light 
and privileges are superior. 

“ And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be 
broken. 7 ’ The Jewish church has fallen on it, and 
was broken, as we have seen. “ But on whomsoever 
it shall fall, it will grind to powder.” 

He will not come the second time, the man of grief 
and sorrow to be fallen on and crucified; but to 
reign “ the King of kings and Lord of lords ;” to fall 
upon his enemies, and he will “ grind them to pow¬ 
der.” 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


123 


This agrees with the teachings of Christ, where he 
speaks without a figure. He specified, among the 
persons who would be shut out of the kingdom of 
God when it shall be established, ministers and pro¬ 
fessors of religion : “ Many will say to me, in that 
day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and 
in thy name have done many wonderful works? 
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew 
you ; depart from me ye that work iniquity.”—Matt, 
vii. 22, 23. 

Here the Saviour evidently alludes to professedly 
gospel ministers, who claim to have done many won¬ 
derful works in the name of Christ. Perhaps have 
been through a great many revivals of religion, and 
baptized and received many into the Church. They 
seem to be honest in claiming that they have done 
much for his cause and in his name. Not a few of 
this class who will be thus rejected, but Jesus says 
that there will be “ many.” 

Of professors, and those who use the form of 
prayer, He says, “Not every one who saith unto me, 
Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; 
but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in 
heaven.” 

Again, speaking of his second coming to judgment, 
and of the signs which should precede his coming, * 
He says, “ Who then is a faithful and wise servant, 
whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to 
give them meat in due season.”—Matt. xxiv. 45. The 
person brought to view here is the faithful minister 


124 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


of the gospel, whom the Lord has made a ruler in 
his household to give timely instruction, “ meat in 
due season.” 

“ Who then,” then refers to the time he had been 
talking about, when those signs would be fulfilled, 
just previous to his coming. Then, if he is giving 
timely instruction to the household, “ Blessed is that 
servant whom his Lord when he cometh shall find 
so doing.” Not all of them shall stumble and be 
snared ; to the faithful “ He shall be for a sanctuary.” 
“ But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, 
My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to 
smite his fellow-servants, and to eat and drink with 
the drunken.” 

The unfaithful minister who loved the praises of 
men, thinketh in his heart, that the Lord will not 
come as soon as his fellow-servant teaches, and shoul¬ 
ders aside his fellow-servants, and would bring into 
disrepute the idea of the Lord’s coming so soon. He 
“ smites his fellow-servant,” “ and eats and drinks with 
the drunken.” He does not get drunk, or even drink 
ardent spirits. But the charge our Lord brings 
against him, is, “ he eats and drinks with the drunk¬ 
en.” He mingles with the world in the fashionable 
circles, where the licentious receives the warm hand 
of . greeting, as well as those who occasionally get 
intoxicated ; he consecrates their feasts by saying 
grace over them ; he receives the friendship of the 
world, and closes their festivals with prayer. “Ye ask, 
and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may 
consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adul- 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


125 


tresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world 
is enmity with God ? Whosoever, therefore, will be 
a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”—James 
iv. 3, 4. 

“ Church feasts,” with the table spread with all the 
luxuries that the heart could lust for, and the vile, 
and the drunkard, and the licentious, and the church 
member, and the minister, mingle at the same table; 
the profits of which are to go for charitable purposes. 

The poor man returning from the toil of the day, 
and seeing the stir about the house of feasting, 
inquires, “what is going on here?” and is informed 
that “ it's a Church feast.” “ Well,” he says, “ Fm a 
member of the church, I will go in and enjoy its bless¬ 
ings.” He is met at the door; “ a dollar, sir, for 
admittance.” He stands aside, while his godly 
brother passes in, and his ungodly neighbor also. 
He thinks of his poor family at home, and of the 
dollar, and of the Churcli-feast. And passing home 
he says to himself, “ surely my poverty has shut me 
from these heavenly feasts of charity, where my richer 
brethren enjoy those choice blessings of my God.” 
He loves his brethren, but he is sad. He takes his 
Bible and opens it to find something to justify them, 
and to comfort his heart; and he reads Isaiah lv. 1, 
“ Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, 
and he that hath no money ; come ye, buy, and eat; 
yea come, buy wine and milk without money and 
without price.” 

Now he says to himself, “ I wonder if this Church- 
feast, for charitable purposes, which excludes those 


126 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


who have no money, is the fulfilment of this free 
and glorious gospel feast, foretold by the prophet.” 
These feasts abound where this promiscuous assembly 
of “ charitable people” meet, and revel in a sumptuous 
feast professedly for Christ’s sake, to sustain his 
cause. A very similar feast comes, off once a year, 
with few exceptions, at the minister’s house, where the 
licentious and the pure bring in their donations and 
mingle in jollity and mirth. 

“ Eating and drinking with the drunken.” “ The 
Lord of that servant shall come in a day when he 
looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not 
aware of, and shall cut him asunder, and appoint him 
his portion with the hypocrites : there shall be weep¬ 
ing and gnashing of teeth.” 

The parable of the ten virgins speaks clearly on 
this subject. This parable is in one respect unlike 
the rest of the parables. This is in the future, while 
the rest are given in the present tense; “ the king¬ 
dom of heaven is likened unto a sower “ the king¬ 
dom of heaven is likened unto a netthey are all in 
the present tense, but this is in the future. “ Then 
shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten vir¬ 
gins which took their lamps and went forth to meet 
the bridegroom. And five of them were wise and five 
were foolish.” This parable was given to represent 
a state of things in the church just previous to the 
coming of Christ, the Bridegroom. 

The main design of this parable is to teach that 
many professors of religion who are alive on the 
earth when the Lord comes will be rejected ; that 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


127 


they will be sadly disappointed, and seek to prepare 
themselves to enter the marriage feast after it is too 
late. Christ comes suddenly, and the door of mercy 
is for ever closed. 

It is not to be supposed that just one half is to be 
rejected ; it may be more in some congregations, 
while it may be less in others—more alive and con¬ 
secrated to God; but at least it speaks a fearful mes¬ 
sage to the church. 

Christian Reader, if the line was to be drawn this 
day, and one half of the church of which you are a 
member eternally rejected, what a fearful anxiety 
would be awakened in your heart! These plain 
declarations of Christ concerning ministers and 
people agreeing so perfectly with the “ sure word of 
prophecy” of the two houses of Israel, should cause 
every professor, minister, and people, to examine 
carefully by the word of God the evidence of their 
acceptance. 

When Jesus declared that one of the twelve would 
betray him, what an intense anxiety was awakened 
among the eleven ! “ Lord, is it I ? Lord, is it I ?” 

burst forth from the hearts of those dear disciples 
who loved him. And now it is to be feared that 
those overwhelming truths which assure us that the 
mass of professors will stumble at the stone of 
stumbling, which is still in Zion, and be eternally 
rejected from the inheritance of the saints, will only 
awaken the few who love him. 

But if the thought of exclusion from being where 
he is, and beholding his glory, rends your heart, the 


128 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


evidence for you is far more favorable than though 
you could read those fearful declarations of God's 
word unmoved. 

The Jewish church lost the true knowledge of the 
inheritance which God had promised that the faith¬ 
ful should possess, when the land should be redeemed 
in the glorious restitution ; to be enjoyed in the 
resurrection state, when the subjects of that inherit¬ 
ance should also be redeemed from the grave, and 
should “ return to Zion with songs of praise and 
everlasting joy upon their heads." And they applied 
those blessed promises to the fathers, that the saints 
should reign gloriously on the earth, to this corrupt¬ 
ible state and time of trial, to be fulfilled in the 
flesh, at the coming of the Messiah. They over¬ 
looked the promise of his coming in humiliation, to 
suffer and to redeem; having their minds fixed on 
that glorious coming to reign, the very promises of 
his coming became to them “a stone of stumbling, 
and a rock of offence." 

The prophets had foretold both his first and 
second coming ; the first in humiliation, the second 
in the clouds of heaven, as seen in Dan. vii., at the 
setting of the Ancient of days. Says Daniel, “ I saw 
in the night vision, and behold, one like the Son of 
man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to 
the Ancient of days, and they brought him near 
before him. And there was given him dominion, 
and glory, and a kingdom that all people, nations, 
and languages should serve him : his dominion is an 
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


129 


his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.” 
This coming is still future. 

With their minds fixed on such a glorious coming 
of Christ, they could at once stifle all conviction that 
the humble Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. And 
when Christ gave them the evidence of his divine 
mission so that some inquired, “ When Christ 
cometh will he do more miracles than these which 
this man hath done?” they could set aside all his 
claim to the Messiahship by appealing to those 
prophecies which foretold his glorious coming. 
They replied, “ Howbeit, we know this man, whence 
he is : but when Christ cometh no man knoweth 
whence he is,” John vii. 27, 31. They had evi¬ 
dently fixed their minds on such prophecies as the 
above in Daniel, of that coming which is still future, 
and overlooking his coming in humiliation to suffer, 
he became to them “ a stone of stumbling, and a rock 
of offence.” 

The Gentile Church has also lost sight of the inhe¬ 
ritance, and they delight to sing that it is away “ be¬ 
yond the bounds of time and space.” Believing that 
their heaven is away beyond the stars, they conclude 
that those prophecies which foretell the glory of 
Christ’s kingdom upon the earth must be in this 
mortal life. The Jewish Church anticipated a tri¬ 
umphant reign in this life when the Messiah should 
come ; she stumbled and was rejected of God. 

The Gentile Church has become equally fascinated 
with the hope of a triumphant reign, during the time 
allotted for her trials. The Church now believing 
6 * 


130 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


the error of the Jewish Church consisted in expect¬ 
ing a literal king; to avoid this error, she claims 
that she has a spiritual king, who will reign till he 
accomplish for her a glorious triumph in this life ; 
though she has changed, as respects the character of 
her king, her hope and expectations are the same. 
How can she but stumble ? 

The error of the Jewish Church did not consist so 
much in the nature of the king she expected, as in the 
nature of her hope—of what he would accomplish for 
her. The Jews would have had no objection if 
Christ had told them that he would become their 
spiritual king, providing he had also promised them 
victory, glory, and honor in this life, instead of dis¬ 
honor, reproach, suffering, and death. If he had 
preached to them that their beloved Jerusalem should 
become a glory in all the earth, and that the worship 
of the God of Israel would become the universal wor¬ 
ship of the nations, and that “ against Israel shall not 
a dog move his tongue,” instead of telling them that 
Jerusalem should be destroyed and trodden down of 
the Gentiles, that his followers would be despised 
and persecuted, that men would think they were 
doing God service in putting them to death, and that 
they should be hated of all nations. 

It was the doctrine he taught which made them 
hate him. If they embraced his doctrine all their 
hopes must be given up. Their prospect was similar 
to the prospect held before the Gentile Church. To 
renounce their hope, and embrace the doctrine taught 
by the Saviour, would have been to give up what 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


131 


they supposed to be the object of Messiah’s coming ; 
just as it is now claimed by those who hope for a mil¬ 
lennium in probation. A very singular objection is 
now brought against the doctrine we advocate. It i 3 
said, that to give up the idea that the world will be 
converted would abate the zeal to labor for the salva¬ 
tion of men. Singular indeed! If two men had each 
a field of grain ready for harvest, which of the two 
would have the greatest stimulant to labor ? the one 
assured that the weather would be fair, that the 
grain would be all secured safely in the garner, 
whether he labored or not some one would gather it, 
surely ; the other knew not what hour the storm 
might beat his grain into the dust, only assured that 
while there was time, if he labored his labor should 
not be in vain. It is evident that the last of the two 
would put forth all his energy. We have the promise 
of God that if we labor, our labor shall not be in vain 
in the Lord ; therefore we will seek to save men as 
brands plucked from the burning. But on the con¬ 
trary, when the Christian laborer meets the strong 
foe and begins to “ wrestle, not against flesh and blood, 
but against principalities, against powers, against the 
rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual 
wickedness in high places,” he is liable to be tempted 
to abate his arduous work by that song of peace, as it 
is whispered in his ear, “ why should you be so 
anxious ? why should you sacrifice your all in the 
cause, so long as you know that the world will all be 
converted ? Don’t be so excited about this great tide 


132 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


of wickedness ; God will over-rule it all to advance 
the salvation of the world.” 

Does not this flattering prospect before the 
Christian church already cause her to begin to 
stumble ? That expected coming reign of peace is 
claimed to be an incentive for good works, instead 
of the love of Christ. If covetousness is manifested 
in the church, they are told that “ they must open 
their hearts and be more liberal before the millennial 
glory can be introduced, instead of for His sake 
who has purchased them with his own blood. If 
the church has fallen into a life which needs reform, 
they are told that “ they must break off these sins 
before the millennium can be introduced,” instead 
of laying aside their sins for the sake of Him whom 
they wound in the house of his friends. 

When an apostle would administer consolation to 
the church in her afflictions and trials, he says, “ be 
patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the 
Lord. ... Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts : 
for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.”—James 
v. 7, 8. But with this prospect of peace before the 
church, to speak of Christ’s coming, will make them 
impatient, and cause offence. “He shall be for a 
stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence.” 

In view of these facts, who can conclude otherwise 
than that the mass of the nominal Christian church 
will be rejected of God at the introduction of the 
coming dispensation of millennial glory, and personal 
reign of Christ, as surely as the Jewish church was 


THE TWO HOUSES OF ISRAEL. 


133 


at the introduction of the present gospel dispensa¬ 
tion ? 

Oh ! may these truths of God’s word have a salu¬ 
tary effect in awakening and making ready a people 
for the coming kingdom and glory of God, which 
shall be revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 


CHAPTER XII. 

THE TEST OR STANDARD BY WHICH TO TRY ALL RELI¬ 
GIOUS TEACHING—AND THE WAY TO KNOW THE 

TRUTH. 

“ To the law and to the testimony ; if they speak not according to 
•this word, it is because there is no light in them.”— Isaiah viii. 20. 

In this text the prophet proclaims the word of the 
Lord as the standard or test by which to try all pro¬ 
fessedly religious teaching. Not only the suspected 
heretic, and the wild enthusiast, but also the teaching 
of the good old divine, should be brought to the test 
which God has given. Said our Lord, “ Take heed 
that no man deceive youno man, good or bad. 
Have you a good sound orthodox divine? God still 
requires that all he teaches be carefully compared 
with the infallible standard, the word of God. 

The Bereans “ were more noble than those of Thes- 
salonica, in that they received the word with all rea¬ 
diness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily 
whether those things were so,” when an inspired 
apostle was the teacher. The very best of men may 
err, not being inspired ; should they preach only the 
truth, and you receive it, the blessing falls far short 
of what you might have received had you diligently 
compared it with the word of God. Learning by 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


135 


that infallible guide that what is taught is really true, 
we become “ rooted and grounded in the truthit 
gets a firm hold of our hearts, so that the enemy 
cannot “ catch away” the precious seed. 

God might have inspired all of his ministers, but 
he has seen fit to withhold from them plenary inspi¬ 
ration, since the days of the apostles, and in its place 
he has given a greater blessing, the full and complete 
volume of his revealed will, “ the holy scriptures 
which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, 
through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” And in his 
providence having caused it to be so universally 
spread abroad that every one may have access to it. 

Although it is well understood that God’s servants 
whom he has commissioned to preach the gospel are 
not inspired, yet what those teach who are acknow¬ 
ledged to be his ministers, is generally received as 
truth, without comparing it with God’s word, by 
which he has commanded us to try all religious teach¬ 
ing ; and it has become almost sacrilege to call in 
question, to examine the teachings of the acknow¬ 
ledged sound minister. 

By whom could the church be more easily led into 
error than by her approved theologians should they 
chance to err ? But will God suffer those who have 
so much influence in his church to fall into error ? 
History reveals the fearful truth that the popular and 
most influential teachers have been the very ones 
hitherto who have led the church astray. It was the 
popular prophets who led Israel into idolatry in the 
days of Elijah. They were the most honored men in 


136 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


the nation ; four hundred of them eat at the Queen's 
table.—1 Kings xviii. 19. 

The popular and learned Rabbies, whose wisdom 
and learning are quoted to this day, so effectually led 
the people into error by their traditions, that in 
keeping of them, they transgressed the commandments 
of God ; and their religion became so heartless, that 
Christ informed them that it was merely an outward 
show. It was the reputed orthodox ministry who led 
the Christian church into Mystical Babylon, to wor¬ 
ship saints, relics, and images. 

God decidedly disapproves an undue confidence in a 
fellow being for what concerns our eternal salvation. 
“ Thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trust- 
eth in man, and maketh flesh his arm.” We are 
called on to “try the spirits whether they are of 
God.” How shall we try them ? “ To the law and 
to the testimony; if they speak not according to this 
word, it is because there is no light in them.” Christ 
has commanded, saying, “ Take heed that no man 
deceive you.*’ The true and humble minister of 
Christ, whose object is the salvation of the people, 
would gladly have all he preaches carefully compared 
with the word of God. He not only prays that the 
truth may have a salutary effect, but also that what 
of error may have escaped his lips might do no 
harm. 

It is like Satan to seek, not the obscure, but the 
influential to aid his cause, and we see in the history 
of the past that his success has been very great. 
Let popular men therefore beware. “ Wo unto you, 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


137 


when all men speak well of you,” said Christ, “ for 
so did they unto the false prophets.” If possible 
Satan will gain them to be his tools ; “ And no 
marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an 
angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his 
ministers also be transformed as the ministers of 
righteousness,” 2 Cor. xi. 14,15. 

But does not this destroy the confidence due the 
ministers of Christ.? No ; they always rejoice to 
know that the people carefully search the Scriptures 
“ to see whether those things are so;” and with the 
apostle they are ready to acknowledge that such 
“ are the more noble” of their hearers ; knowing that 
the more thorough the examination, the more will 
the people be confirmed in the truth. 

God has given his word at the cost of the perse¬ 
cution and violent death of many of those faithful 
men whom he inspired to write it, and of his only 
begotten Son. He has also preserved it through the 
most fiery ordeal, and in his providence it is trans¬ 
lated into our language, and he has sent it among us 
as plentifully as he did the manna from heaven for 
the children of Israel: and as they loathed the 
manna, and “ lusted for the leeks, and the onions, 
and the garlics, of Egypt,” so now his precious 
word, “ the bread of heaven,” is loathed ; instead of 
being read with pleasure, as a privilege, it is 
generally read as a duty or task, while the light and 
pernicious reading with which the world is flooded, 
is devoured with eagerness and delight. This is 
evident from the general conversation of church 


138 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


members. They can talk intelligibly of those publi¬ 
cations, history, science, business, or of the events 
of the day, but of God’s word they rarely speak, and 
if introduced, they have a “ poor memory although 
their memory never fails in what concerns their 
interest. 

What wonder then if God should suffer the people 
to be cursed with error, and even “ send them strong 
delusion, that they should believe a lie because 
they have no pleasure in his truth, thus freely given. 
It is evident that error abounds on religious subjects, 
from the fact that divisions are so greatly multiplied : 
and the cause is equally evident. A man cannot be 
led astray on a journey if well acquainted with the 
road ; neither will the people embrace error if well 
instructed in the truth. 

The popular preaching, the religious instruction 
of the day, has little or nothing to do with expound¬ 
ing the Scriptures. Though a text is taken from the 
Bible, it is not always explained, and when explained 
the short text constitutes the extent of their exposi¬ 
tion. Yery learned essays, and instructive and 
interesting discourses on various subjects are given, 
but expounding the Scriptures as did the primitive 
Christian minister is all out of fashion, and therefore 
out of order. A few short quotations from the Bible 
are often interspersed and made applicable to the sub¬ 
ject, being isolated texts, but are often made to 
teach something foreign to what God designs, as 
their context would easily show. And church mem- 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


139 


bers are better instructed on almost all subjects than 
in the word of God. 

It was the appointed work of the Christian minis¬ 
ter to explain the Scriptures. 

Our Lord also was accustomed to expound the 
scriptures in his discourses. His sermon on the 
mount is an exposition of the moral law. The early 
history of the church as well as “ the Acts of the 
Apostles,” show that expounding of the Scriptures 
was the business of the Christian ministry. 

Christ and his apostles also gave special attention 
to the prophecies, that portion of scripture now 
greatly neglected. The fulfilment of the prophecies 
is now the best' external testimony of the divine 
authenticity of the Bible ; “ for the testimony of 
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”—Rev. xix. 10. 
The miracles were an evidence to those who wit¬ 
nessed them, of the divine mission of those by whom 
they were wrought. But they are now the reason 
why the sceptical mind rejects the Bible ; because 
the miracles recorded in it are contrary to the 
common course of things, or to the order of nature. 
But the fulfilment of the prophecies is a living 
miracle which forces upon the sceptical mind the 
truth that the Bible is of Heavenly origin; that it 
is the word of the eternal God. Yet the prophecies 
are now as much slighted as were the prophets who 
wrote them ; and they might as well be where the 
prophets were driven to, in the dens and caves of 
the earth, as to be in our hands never read or 
explained. 


140 . 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Our Lord was careful to search out those prophe¬ 
cies which referred to his day, and to show their 
fulfilment. “ As his custom was, he went into the 
synagogue on the sabbath day and stood up for to 
read. And there was delivered unto him the book 
of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened 
the book, he found the place where it was written, 
The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath 
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor: he 
hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach 
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind ; to set at liberty them that are bruised ; 
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he 
closed the book and gave it again to the minister, 
and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were 
in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he 
began to say unto them, this day is this scripture 
fulfilled in your ears. And all bare him witness, 
and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded 
out of his mouth.”—Luke iv. 16-22. 

He found the place where it was written of 
himself and thus proved to them the truth of the 
prophecies ; “ and all bare him witness.” 

On the way to Emmaus, Jesus, “beginning at 
Moses, and all the prophets, expounded unto them 
in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.” 
And “ they said one to another, did not our hearts 
burn within us while he talked with us by the way ? 
and while he opened to us the Scriptures?” Ex¬ 
pounding the Scriptures, and showing the fulfilment 
of the prophecies, was also the mode of teaching 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


141 


adopted by the Apostles ; and it is very evident that 
expository preaching is decidedly preferable in 
giving Bible instruction. It is certain that there 
is a general lack of interest in reading the Scrip¬ 
tures, which many Christians feel, and deeply deplore ; 
and it is also certain, that well conducted Bible- 
classes and sabbath-schools awaken much more 
interest in the Bible than public preaching. This 
general want of interest, this “ famine of the word,” 
while it is in every man’s hands, may not be charge¬ 
able wholly to the mode of preaching; it may be 
sent on the people for the low estimation they place 
on the word of God so freely, so abundantly given. 

Has the mantle of the noble Bereans fallen on no 
one ? Where is that ardent love of the word of 
God so characteristic of the Waldenses, who had 
the Bible at their tongues’ end ? Have we any 
claim to be the children of the Protestants who 
read the Scriptures so anxiously on their knees? 
The word of God, this great and precious gift of 
Heaven, so freely given ; the abundance of the 
blessing will prove the greater condemnation. In 
every man’s hands, so cheap, it is valued nothing 
worth, it will rise up in judgment a swift witness : 
Christ said, “ he that rejecteth me, and receiveth 
not my words, hath one that judgeth him : the word 
that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the 
last day.” 

The great number of sects professedly founded on 
the Scriptures, is an objection, in the minds of many 
to the Divine authenticity of the Bible ; and the 


142 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


argument seems plausible, that a book from which 
so many theories may be sustained, cannot be from 
God. But a careful examination of facts will show, 
that the multitude of sects have not originated in 
the teachings of the Bible, but from a foreign source ; 
from a want of a careful adherence to the Scriptures. 
There is not, however, so great a difference in the 
fundamental doctrines believed by the sects, as the 
objector may imagine ; and the fact that there are 
many sects, instead of being an evidence against the 
truth of the Bible, is an evidence of its divine 
authenticity ; for the Bible reveals the truth that 
divisions would be multiplied. Christ foretold, that 
from his time onward there would be divisions. 

How, then, shall we know, says the inquirer, what 
is truth, seeing there are so many different views, so 
many sects and isms, and even ministers who devote 
their time to it, cannot agree, how shall a common 
man know what to believe ? If it were true that 
ministers did devote their time to learn the truth 
from God’s word, and to promulgate it, the excuse 
might be reasonable ; but the facts are, they gene¬ 
rally devote their time to learn the theology adopted 
by the church which they have joined, and to sustain 
its views ; therefore divisions continue. 

God has given a rule in his word by which to 
obtain the truth, and all those who have complied with 
its requirements are no doubt already in possession 
of the treasure, notwithstanding the various sects and 
isms which are abroad. Mark the ascending steps 
which Inspiration has pointed out to obtain the 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


143 


truth ; and if the reader can honestly say, these steps 
have I taken, then would we gladly sit at his feet 
and listen to the voice of wisdom. Prov. ii. 1-9, 
God says :— 

“ My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide 
my commandments with thee.” 

What would he have us do? What is the first 
step to be taken ? He answers :— 

“ So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom.” 

That is, give wisdom a hearing ear. Let the 
voice of wisdom have your special attention. This 
step perhaps the reader has taken. Well, have you 
also taken the second ? 

“ And apply thine heart to understanding.” 

Your affections are to be placed on the truth ; not 
on some adopted theory which you would gladly sus¬ 
tain ; but are you really in love with the truth, even 
should it cut off your adopted views, and make you a 
reprobate? Can you say, Let the worst come, let 
me know the truth? Many, no doubt, can answer 
this question in the affirmative. 

“ Yea, if thou criest after knowledge.” 

This is not difficult to understand. Have dear 
friends been taken away by the common enemy, 
death ? And you could not refrain the quick-falling 
tear, while your heart went out after them in groans 
and sighs. You have read of “Rachel weeping for 
her children, and would not be comforted, because 
they were not.” Has God heard the groans and 
sighs, and counted the tears, in your anxiety for the 
truth ? Then you have taken the third step. 


146 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


marked out to obtain the truth ; how, then, do you 
know but what you have embraced fables, like the 
Jewish Church ? Are you more confident and sin¬ 
cere than were the Jews ? or do you conclude that 
God has lowered down the condition of obtaining the 
truth in your case ? Have you been expecting a time 
of glory and honor for the Church in probation, 
where her Lord has said she should receive persecu¬ 
tion, tribulation, and death ? and having been edu¬ 
cated to believe the theory true, do you now think it 
hard to find it at last a fable, and still acknowledge 
you have not complied with the conditions God has 
given to know the truth ? Then are you not already 
beginning to say : “ Lord, I knew thee that thou art 
a hard man, reaping where thou hast not sown, and 
gathering where thou hast not strewed: and I was 
afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth,” 
that I might toil for silver, and search for hid trea¬ 
sures ? “ Lo there, thou hast that is thine.” 

Is it any more strange that you should embrace 
fables, which blind your mind to the truth and lead 
off your affections from God, causing the reading of 
his word to become a dull task, than for the Jewish 
Church ? She was truly the visible Church of God ; 
yet such proved the result of holding the same fables 
with her, as has been shown. 

You will not find a lack of interest in the study of 
God’s word, if you will bring your theories to it, and 
try them by the testimony he has given, remembering 
that God addresses you as a rational being, that you 
are not to mystify or to spiritualize, but the plain 


THE TEST OR STANDARD. 


147 


word is to be understood as it reads, or as you would 
any other plain written language ; and if your theo¬ 
ries stand the test—well ; but if they do not, “ it is 
because there is no light in them.” 


CHAPTER XIII. 


CHRIST TO REIGN PERSONALLY ON THE EARTH. 

“Thy kingdom come.” 

The coming of the kingdom of God, the establish¬ 
ing of Messiah’s peaceful and everlasting reign, when 
the will of God shall be done on earth as it is done 
in heaven, is the most exalted and glorious theme 
that can possibly come before the children of God. 

When the child of God properly meditates on the 
subject, his soul is stirred within him, and the ardent 
desire of his heart is, “ may thy kingdom come.” 
When he reads the description of that day, as given 
in the word of God, “ The holy city prepared as a 
bride adorned for her husband”—the King with his 
saints in immortal beauty and glory,—“ the light of 
the moon as the light of the sun, and the light of the 
sun seven fold, as the light of seven days,” yet “ the 
moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed 
when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, 
and in Jerusalem and before his ancients gloriously.” 
Then again he cries, 0 may thy kingdom come that 
we may be where thou art, that we may behold thy 
glory. 

A kingdom supposes a territory, subjects, and a 
king. The answering of this prayer must be “ at his 
appearing and kingdom,” when “the kingdoms of 


Christ's personal reign. 


149 


this world shall become the kingdoms of our Lord 
and of his Christ, and he shall reign for ever and 
ever.” The territory is named, “ Thy will be done 
on earth as it is in heaven.” The King is the Lord 
Jesus Christ, and the subjects are his people, as will 
be seen in pursuing this subject. 

The Lord Jesus Christ was to be a Prophet, 
Priest, and King. He was a Prophet literally, 
personally. He prophesied of events from his day 
down to the end of time; and as a teacher, “he 
spake as never man spake.” He was a Priest 
literally, personally. He offered not the blood of 
lambs and of goats, but his own most precious blood ; 
and as the high priest went into the most holy place 
to make intercession for the people, so Christ has 
gone into heaven itself, and now lives to make inter¬ 
cession for the people ; He is our Priest. 

These two offices he has filled literally, personally. 
Shall we now, in our haste to have a king, imagine 
that he is filling his kingly office spiritually ? 
“ Have we added unto all our sins this evil, to ask a 
king?” as did the Jewish church. He is indeed 
King, as the Sovereign of the Universe, but that 
kingly office foretold by prophets he has not yet 
filled ; nor can the prophecy be fulfilled till he reigns 
in person on the earth as the Son of David. Having 
filled the two former offices personally, to interpret 
the prophecy so as to teach that he is filling the 
kingly office spiritually, is contrary to all exegetical 
rules of interpretation, and also to the plain teaching 
of the word of God. 


150 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


As surely as he has filled the two first offices in 
person, literally, so truly will he fill the last, the 
kingly office in person. 

John the Revelator craves for the seven churches 
of Asia, the grace of “ Him which is, and which was, 
and which is to come.” Christ is now our living 
Priest, he was our great Teacher or Prophet, he is to 
come our King. 

Gabriel said to Mary, “ The Lord God shall give 
unto him the throne of his father David ; and he 
shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever ; and of 
his kingdom there shall be no end.” Luke i. 32, 33. 

Even if Christ is now reigning spiritually, as some 
believe, it is certain that he has never had the throne 
of his Father David. And in order that the promise 
be fulfilled, the tabernacle of David which has fallen 
must be raised up, as the prophet Amos has foretold, 
ix. 11,12, “ In that day will I raise up the tabernacle 
of David which is fallen and close up the breaches 
thereof: and I will raise up his ruins, and I will 
build it as in the days of old ; that they may possess 
the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen who are 
called by my name, saith the Lord, who doeth this.” 
The context shows that when the tabernacle of 
David, or “ the house of David,” the royal family of 
David, in the person of Christ shall be established in 
his reign, the wicked shall be destroyed. “ And the 
heathen who are called by the name of the Lord” that 
is, the Gentile church shall be united with the 

Jewish, and they shall be one.“And I will 

plant them upon their land, and they shall no more 



Christ’s personal reign. 


151 


. 


be pulled up out of the land which I have given 
them, saith the Lord thy God.” 

The covenant to David of a seed to sit for ever on 
his throne was unconditional, immutable ; it did not 
in any way depend on the faithfulness or unfaithful¬ 
ness of David’s family, but on the immutable promise 
of Jehovah.—2 Sam. vii. 8,16. Ps. 89. 

“ I have found David my servant; with my holy 

oil have I anointed him.Also I will make him 

my first-born, higher than the kings of the earth, my 
mercy will I keep for him for evermore, and my 
covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also 
will I make to endure for ever, and his throne as the 
days of heaven. If his children forsake my law, and 
walk not in my judgment; if they break my statutes, 
and keep not my commandments; then will I visit 
their transgressions with the rod, and their iniquity 
with stripes. Nevertheless, my loving kindness will 
I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness 
to fail. My covenant will I not break, nor alter the 
thing that is gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn 
by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. His 
seed shall endure for ever, and his Throne as the sun 
before me. It shall be established for ever as the 
moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.” 

Though this covenant was unconditional, yet God 
said if his children transgress I will visit their trans¬ 
gressions with the rod. The descendants of the 
throne did transgress grievously ; they caused Israel 
to sin more than the heathen nations about them, and 
God suffered the Chaldeans to come upon them and 



152 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


to capture them, and they carried away the royal 
family, and overthrew the kingdom. Ezekiel the 
prophet is sent to pronounce the curse, but in the 
curse the immutable, the unconditional covenant with 
David is remembered, it must not be broken. “ And 
thou profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day is 
come, when iniquity shall have an end. Thus saith 
the Lord God ; remove the diadem, and take off the 
crown; this shall not be the same ; exalt him who is 
low, and abase him who is high. I will overturn, 
overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more till he 
comes, whose right it is ; and I will give it him. 77 — 
Ezek. xxi. 25-27. Christ is the true and lawful heir 
to David’s throne, “ whose right it is. 77 That king¬ 
dom has been overturned, and it will not be restored 
till He come whose “ right it is. 77 When He comes, 
he will first thoroughly cleanse his dominion from all 
impurity; “ He will thoroughly purge his floor, and 
the chaff he will burn with fire unquenchable. 77 He 
“ whom the heavens must receive until the times of 
the restitution of all things which God has spoken by 
the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world 
began, 77 will remove the curse before he establish his 
peaceful and glorious reign. 

God in his great mercy to the holy prophets per¬ 
mitted all of them to have a view more or less dis¬ 
tinct, of the renovated earth, of Christ’s coming, 
peaceful, and everlasting kingdom ; which must have 
greatly strengthened them while suffering those 
“cruel mockings,” and extreme persecutions which 
they endured rather than give up the hope of a part 
in “ the better resurrection. 77 


Christ’s personal reign. 


153 


But has not the kingdom already been established 
on the earth ? And is it not the Church ? Does not 
Christ claim to be king? “Jesus answered, My 
kingdom is not of this world; if my kingdom were 
of this world, then would my servants light, that I 
should not be delivered to the Jews ; but now is my 
kingdom not from hence. Pilate, therefore, said 
unto him, Art thou a king, then? Jesus answered, 
Thou sayest that I am a king; to this end was I 
born, and for this cause came I into the world, that 
I should bear witness to the truth.”—John xviii. 
36, 37. 

He did truly bear witness to the truth, and he 
sealed it with his blood. He was also born to be 
king, and he will come again to reign, not in this 
world or age, this corrupted state, but in “ the world 
to come,” the restored state of the world, when He 
shall remove the curse, and consecrate this earth 
with his glorified presence. And now, He says, “ To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in 
my throne, as I have overcome, and am set down 
with my Father in his throne.”—Rev. iii. 21. 

Christ is also the Anointed of the Lord, but he is 
not yet established in his kingdom. David was also 
anointed king in Israel long before he was esta¬ 
blished in the kingdom. Christ “ has ascended on 
high and sat down at the right hand of the Father, 
henceforth expecting till his enemies are made his 
footstool;” therefore he has taught his subjects to 
pray for his kingdom to come. 

Christ’s kingdom is made a subject of the deepest 


154 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


interest throughout the Bible; yet his reign is 
always placed in the future. The time when he shall 
be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, is at 
his second coming. He says, “ When the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory.” This is the earliest period in which he is 
represented as taking his throne. “ Then shall the 
King say to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed 
of my Father.” This is the earliest that he is repre¬ 
sented as an acting King. 

Though the title of King is often applied to him in 
the Scriptures, it is only as a Prince, of an heir to 
the throne. God “hath in these last days spoken 
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of 
all things, by whom also he made the world.”—Heb. 
i. 2. 

Notwithstanding the Scriptures do thus clearly 
teach that Christ’s reign is still future, and that he 
is to reign personally, yet it is generally taught and 
understood that he is now filling his kingly office by 
the Spirit, and that the church is his kingdom. But 
if the kingdom has come, why continue to pray, “ Thy 
kingdom come ?” Shall we continue to ask God for 
what he has already granted ? And if the church is 
that kingdom, then the kingdom had come before our 
Lord taught his disciples to pray for it to come ; for 
God has had a church on earth since the days of 
Abel. Some teachers are more consistent; believing 
the Church to be Christ’s kingdom, and that he is 
reigning spiritually, they teach that we should now 



Christ’s personal reign. 


155 


pray, “ may thy kingdom be extended over all the 
earth.” With such, the Lord’s prayer is obsolete; 
or at least they revise the prayer which Jesus indited 
for his church during all coming time. 

But did not Jesus say, “ that there be some stand¬ 
ing here who shall not taste of death till they shall 
see the kingdom of God come with power ?” True, 
he did, and the saying is recorded by three of the 
Evangelists ; and if we read carefully the context, we 
shall see the fulfilment. They each record in. con¬ 
nexion with that saying, the description of the trans¬ 
figuration of Christ. 

So powerfully glorious was the manifestation of 
the kingdom of God, although it was only in epitome, 
that those three disciples who were honored with 
the sight, were overpowered with the brightness 
and splendor of the exhibition. Observe how it 
reads, and you have their explanation.—Luke xx. 
2T-31. “ But I tell you of a truth, there be some 

standing here who shall not taste of death till they 
see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass 
about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, 
and John, and James, and went up into a mountain 
to pray, and as he prayed, the fashion of his counte¬ 
nance was altered, and his raiment was white and 
glistening. And behold, there talked with him two 
men, who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in 
glory and spake of his decease, which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem.” Here is the kingdom 
of God in epitome. Christ thus transfigured repre¬ 
sented the King. Moses, who had been long dead, 


154 the saints’ inheritance. 

interest throughout the Bible; yet his reign is 
always placed in the future. The time when he shall 
be crowned King of kings and Lord of lords, is at 
his second coming. He says, “ When the Son of 
man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels 
with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his 
glory.” This is the earliest period in which he is 
represented as taking his throne. “ Then shall the 
King say to those on his right hand, Come, ye blessed 
of my Father.” This is the earliest that he is repre¬ 
sented as an acting King. 

Though the title of King is often applied to him in 
the Scriptures, it is only as a Prince, of an heir to 
the throne. God “hath in these last days spoken 
unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of 
all things, by whom also he made the world.”—Heb. 
i. 2. 

Notwithstanding the Scriptures do thus clearly 
teach that Christ’s reign is still future, and that he 
is to reign personally, yet it is generally taught and 
understood that he is now filling his kingly office by 
the Spirit, and that the church is his kingdom. But 
if the kingdom has come, why continue to pray, “ Thy 
kingdom come ?” Shall we continue to ask God for 
what he has already granted ? And if the church is 
that kingdom, then the kingdom had come before our 
Lord taught liis disciples to pray for it to come ; for 
God has had a church on earth since the days of 
Abel. Some teachers are more consistent; believing 
the Church to be Christ’s kingdom, and that he is 
reigning spiritually, they teach that we should now 


CHRIST S PERSONAL REIGN. 


155 


pray, “ may thy kingdom be extended over all the 
earth.” With such, the Lord’s prayer is obsolete; 
or at least they revise the prayer which Jesus indited 
for his church during all coming time. 

But did not Jesus say, “ that there be some stand¬ 
ing here who shall not taste of death till they shall 
see the kingdom of God come with power?” True, 
he did, and the saying is recorded by three of the 
Evangelists ; and if we read carefully the context, we 
shall see the fulfilment. They each record in. con¬ 
nexion with that saying, the description of the trans¬ 
figuration of Christ. 

So powerfully glorious was the manifestation of 
the kingdom of God, although it was only in epitome, 
that those three disciples who were honored with 
the sight, were overpowered with the brightness 
and splendor of the exhibition. Observe how it 
reads, and you have their explanation.—Luke xx. 
27-31. “ But I tell you of a truth, there be some 

standing here who shall not taste of death till they 
see the kingdom of God. And it came to pass 
about eight days after these sayings, he took Peter, 
and John, and James, and went up into a mountain 
to pray, and as he prayed, the fashion of his counte¬ 
nance was altered, and his raiment was white and 
glistening. And behold, there talked with him two 
men, who were Moses and Elias, who appeared in 
glory and spake of his decease, which he should 
accomplish at Jerusalem.” Here is the kingdom 
of God in epitome. Christ thus transfigured repre¬ 
sented the King. Moses, who had been long dead, 


156 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


represented the righteous dead who shall be raised 
and glorified. Elias, that is, Elijah, who had been 
translated that he should not see death, represented 
the living who “ shall not sleep ** or die, but shall 
be changed in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, 
at his appearing and kingdom. As much as though 
the Evangelist had said, “about eight days after 
these sayings he took three of his disciples who were 
standing there, and went up into a mountain and 
gave them an exhibition of the kingdom of God.** 

This exposition is confirmed by one of the eye¬ 
witnesses.—2 Peter i. 16, IT. “ For we have not 
followed cunningly devised fables, when we made 
known to you the power and coming of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, but were eye-witnesses of his majesty. 
For he received from God the Father honor and 
glory, when there came such a voice to him from the 
excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I 
am well pleased. And this voice which came from 
heaven, we heard when we were with him in the 
holy mount.** 

Therefore, instead of the text so often quoted as 
proof that the kingdom is already established being 
an argument in its favor, it becomes through the 
teaching of the apostle, an argument that the king¬ 
dom is still future, and that its coming is no fable, 
but that Christ’s personal reign is a glorious truth 
of which that exhibition in the holy mount was 
given as a sure pledge. 

If that glory was such as to overcome the disciples 
at the sight of the King and two of his subjects in 


CHRIST S PERSONAL REIGN. 


157 


glory, what shall be that “ far more exceeding and eter¬ 
nal weight of glory,” of which Paul speaks ? And 
when the prayer shall be answered, and the kingdom 
of God shall come ; the earth renewed, and the great 
company of the redeemed shall be thus glorified, the 
oath of God will be verified—“ as truly as I live, 
all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the 
Lord.” Then the will of God shall be done on 
earth as it is in heaven. Oh! may thy kingdom 
come. 


CHAPTER XIY. 


WHEN CHRIST REIGNS ON EARTH HIS SUBJECTS WILL BE 
IMMORTAL. 

“Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom 
of their Father. ~ Who hath ears to hear let him hear.”— Matt. 
xiii. 43. 

The prospect of a triumphant reign in this mortal 
state over every foe, when the nations should lay 
aside their idolatry for the worship of the God of 
Israel, was the great moving sentiment of the Jewish 
church, on which their hopes were placed, and around 
which they rallied as the main-spring of all their 
exertions, as truly as the hope of a temporal millen¬ 
nium is interwoven with the movements of the Chris¬ 
tian church at the present day. 

The explanation of “ the parable of the tares in the 
field,” as given by our Lord, of which the text is the 
closing part, was designed to cut off this pleasing 
prospect of the Jewish church, and it still stands an 
immovable truth against the vain prospect of a tri¬ 
umphant reign in the flesh, for either Jewish or 
Christian church ; and it will so stand till the end of 
the world. 

The disciples being educated in the Jewish church, 
were more or less under the same delusive hope; 
therefore the parable awakened in them an anxiety ; 


Christ’s kingdom. 359 

and as soon as the multitude were dispersed, and the 
Saviour had entered the house, his disciples came to 
him unanimously desiring an explanation, “ saying, 
declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field.” 

But Christ seems to apprehend that even they were 
not all prepared to receive the exposition; for having 
explained it to them, he adds, “ Who hath ears to 
hear let him hear.” 

That truth is very unwelcome which cuts off long 
.cherished religious theories, and pleasing hopes ; and 
those who have embraced the pleasing hope of peace, 
ever seem, as Stephen said, “ uncircumcised in heart 
and ears.” 

The Jewish church at large were quite unprepared 
to listen to the plain truth without a parable, as 
Christ explained it to his disciples; for Jesus had 
just said of them, “ that this people’s heart is waxed 
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their 
eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should 
see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and 
should understand with their heart, and should be 
converted, and I should heal them.” They would 
perhaps have gnashed on him with their teeth, as 
they did afterwards on Stephen, while teaching a 
similar sentiment. 

Could the church have received the explanation of 
this parable, they would have learned at once, that 
the Messiah would not reign during the time of pro¬ 
bation for his church, qither literally or spiritually. 

The Jewish church were right in expecting that 
the Messiah would be a king, and that his reign would 


160 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


be a triumphant reign of peace. One of the titles 
given him is, “ The Prince of Peace.” But they mis¬ 
applied the promises, and he proved to them “ a stone 
of stumbling ;” because they applied those promises 
of his second coming to reign, to his first coming ; 
which was to suffer; and therefore they expected the 
glorious reign of peace in the flesh, where both their 
Messiah and the heirs of his kingdom were not to 
reign, but to suffer. They seemed to overlook his 
office as a Priest, to suffer, to redeem, and to inter¬ 
cede for his people; which office he still fills. 

Though Jesus said, “ All power is given to me in 
heaven, and in earth yet an apostle says, “ We see 
not yet all things put under him.” But it is revealed 
to John that it shall be accomplished at the sounding 
of the seventh angel. “ The four and twenty elders, 
which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their 
faces and worshipped God, saying, We give thee 
thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, 
and art to come ; because thou hast taken to thee thy 
great power and hast reigned.”—Rev. xi. 

Immediately in connexion with his taking to him¬ 
self his great power to reign, the judgment sits, and 
then are heard the “ great voices in heaven, saying, 
the kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms 
of our Lord and his Christ, and he shall reign for 
ever and ever.” 

Though all power is given to Christ, yet it is here 
clearly taught that he does not take to himself that 
power and reign till the day of judgment. Then the 
Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall 


Christ’s kingdom. 


161 


gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, 
and those who do iniquity; and he shall be crowned 
King of kings, and Lord of lords. Then he shall be 
“ The Prince of Peace, and The Everlasting Father,” 
of “ the world to come.” At which time he will ful¬ 
fil his word as given by Hosea ; “ I will ransom them 
from the power of the grave; I will redeem them 
from death : 0 death, I will be thy plagues, 0 graves, 
I will be thy destruction.” And “then shall the 
righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of 
their Father.” 

Israel clamored for a king, that they might be 
raised to honor as the nations around them, and God 
gave them one in his anger, and took him away in his 
wrath. 

As soon as the people began to believe that Christ 
was the Messiah, when they saw the miracles which 
he did, they would have taken him by force and made 
him a king, but he fled from their midst. 

The Christian Church had only a little respite 
from persecution in the days of Constantine, and her 
hope is soon fixed on this world, and she must have 
a king. They crown one of their bishops, and the 
descendant of that throne now claims to reign as 
Christ’s vicar on earth. 

The Protestant Church have had but a short respite 
from persecution, and they claim a king; but they 
would avoid the errors of those before them, who 
demanded a temporal king ; so they claim a spiritual 
king, still his subjects are in the flesh and blood. 


162 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


“ But flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of 
God,” says an apostle. 

What do they expect their king will accomplish 
in this world ? They claim that he will reign till 
the heathen are converted, and idolatry is abolished 
for the worship of the true God; and through him 
the Church shall triumph over all her foes. And did 
not those Churches before them, who have so greatly 
fallen, anticipate the same thing ? 

The desire for a kingdom and a reign in this world 
has ever been a besetment of the Church. She has 
at times, in her history, connected herself with the 
state, and it has proved a snare. She would have 
her glory before she has her suffering. “ But if we 
suffer with him, we shall also reign with him.” The 
Lord Jesus knowing this strong inclination to have 
a kingdom in the flesh, was careful to protest against 
it, saying, “ My kingdom is not from hence,” and he 
therefore made the subject very plain. He spoke the 
following words in order to correct his followers, 
who had the same prevailing desire for a king¬ 
dom in the flesh, Luke xix. 11-15. “ And as they 
heard these things, he added and spake a parable, 
because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they 
thought the kingdom of God should immediately 
appear. He said therefore, a certain nobleman went 
into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, 
and to return. And he called his ten servants, and 
delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, 
occupy till I come. But his citizens hated him, and 
sent a message after him, saying, we will not have 


Christ’s kingdom. 


163 


this man to reign over us. And it came to pass, that 
when he was returned, having received the kingdom, 
then he commanded these servants to be called to 
him,” and he rewards the faithful and punishes his 
enemies. 

“ Having received the kingdom” Christ returns to 
reign. He spake this parable “ because they thought 
the kingdom of - God should immediately appear.” 
He does not teach or intimate that the Church is 
his kingdom, and that he would reign spiritually 
while absent from them. But he has gone into a far 
country to receive for himself a kingdom. “ The 
Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou at my right hand 
till I make thine enemies thy footstool.” “ He hath 
ascended on high and sat down on the right hand of 
God ; from henceforth expecting till his enemies be 
made his footstool.” 

“ And it came to pass when he was returned, hav¬ 
ing received the kingdom.” 

Having accomplished his mediatorial work, “ And 
the seventh angel sounded ; and there were great 
voices in heaven, saying, the kingdoms of this 
world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of 
his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever. . . . 
And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, 
and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, 
and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy ser¬ 
vants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that 
fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest 
destroy them which destroy the earth.”—Rev. xi. 
15 - 18 . 


164 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


If the restitution of this earth had not been lost 
sight of, when all things shall be made new as the 
final abode of the saints ; no one would have thought 
of applying what is to transpire under the sounding 
of the seventh angel, to a temporal millennium ; but 
fully believing that the heaven of the saints is away 
in some other part of God’s universe, where Christ’s 
everlasting kingdom will be established, they can 
make no other application. Notwithstanding the 
nations are represented as being angry, and God’s 
wrath has come, and the time to reward his servants, 
and punish his enemies, all transpiring in connexion 
with the “ great voices in heaven, saying, the king¬ 
doms of this world are become the kingdoms of our 
Lord, and of his Christ, and He shall reign for ever 
and ever.” 

Having lost sight of the inheritance of the saints, 
how can they but teach that Christ is reigning spirit¬ 
ually, and that the millennium will be in this mortal 
state ? For wherever the location of Christ’s king¬ 
dom is mentioned in the Scriptures, it is invariably 
fixed on the earth. And taking it for granted that 
Christ’s everlasting kingdom is in some other place, 
they could but fix his reign in probation, if he ever 
reigned on earth ; as they expect this earth will be 
annihilated after the judgment. 

Therefore those blessed promises of the “ restitu¬ 
tion of all things, which God hath spoken by the 
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world 
began,” are applied by them to this corruptible state. 
Those “ exceeding great and precious promises” con- 


Christ’s kingdom. 


165 


cerning Christ’s kingdom on earth being too high 
and glorious for anything in mortal life, the only way 
they have to dispose of them, has been to conclude 
that they were “ hyperbolical or poetical expressions.” 
But instead of being “ hyperbolical expressions,” the 
recipients of these promises will no doubt say as did 
the Queen of Sheba, “ The half has not been told me.” 
Thus has God hitherto fulfilled his word. 

How can the following language from Isaiah lx. 
18-21 be applied to this life ? Speaking of the Holy 
City, “ Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, 
wasting nor destruction within thy borders ; but 
thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates 
Praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day ; 
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting 
light, and thy God thy glory. Thy sun shall no 
more go down : neither shall thy moon withdraw 
itself; for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light; 
and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. Thy 
people shall be all righteous ; they shall inherit the 
land for ever ; the branch of my planting, the work 
of my hands, that I may be glorified.” 

“ Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in 
the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to 
hear, let him hear.” 


CHAPTER XY. 


Christ’s reign continued—his kingdom to be 

WITHOUT END. 

“ Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give 
you the kingdom.” —Luke xii. 32. 

The church of God on earth in all ages has been 
a little flock ; afflicted, persecuted, a prey for the 
enemy on every side. Many of her most promising 
sons and daughters have been cut off by death just as 
they were entering the field of usefulness; and 
before the time to lay off her mourning apparel she 
has had to renew it. A multitude from her ranks 
have been brought to a premature death by the 
bloody hands of persecutors. Her martyrs number 
many millions. During the most of her history the 
voice of the blood of her children has cried unto the 
Lord from the ground as did the blood of Abel, or it 
has ascended from the stake in the burning flame, in 
still louder cries to the God of the afflicted. The 
church has her type in her Lord ; and in this life she 
is to drink of the cup of which he drank. 

In the text our Lord would encourage her, with 
the promise of the kingdom ; but if the kingdom was 
organized and they its subjects, then he promises 
them that which they already had. When a person 
is converted, he is not born into the kingdom of 


CHRIST S REIGN WITHOUT END. 


167 


God, as many teach, but regeneration is a necessary 
qualification for the kingdom. “ Yerily, verily, I 
say unto thee, except a man be born again he cannot 
see the kingdom of God.” Those who have departed 
this life have not received the kingdom, or their 
promised crown. Paul expected his crown at 
Christ’s appearing and kingdom. He says, “ Hence¬ 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous¬ 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give 
me at that day : and not to me only but to all those 
that love his appearing.” 

The apostle, speaking of the worthies of the Old 
Testament, says, “ These all having obtained a good 
report through faith, received not the promise : God 
having provided some better thing for us that they 
without us should not be made perfect,” Heb. xi. 39, 
40. Those ancient worthies were not made perfect, 
says the apostle, although they had departed this 
life ; neither will they be, so long as death triumphs 
over their bodies ; nor had they received the fulfil¬ 
ment of the promise. They have not yet received 
their inheritance, the promised kingdom ; nor will 
they, without the New Testament saints ; “ that they 
without us should not be made perfect.” John says, 
Rev. vi. 9, 10, “ I saw under the altars the souls of 
them that were slain for the word of God, and for 
the testimony which they held : and they cried with 
a loud voice, saying, How long, 0 Lord, holy and 
true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on 
them that dwell on the earth ?” Thus we see that 
all the departed saints are looking forward with 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


168 

bright anticipation to the coming of Christ’s king¬ 
dom ; when all the redeemed of the Lord shall be 
made perfect by a resurrection from the dead, with 
bodies like unto Christ’s most glorious body ; then 
they shall be for ever established in that glorious 
reign ; “ for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give 
you the kingdom.” 

In view of that day the prophet says, Isaiah xlix., 
“ Sing, 0 heaven ; and be joyful, 0 earth ; and break 
forth into singing, 0 mountains : for the Lord hath 
comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his 
afflicted. But Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me ; 
and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman 
forget her sucking child that she should not have 
compassion on” her own son ? “ Yea, they may for¬ 

get, yet will I not forget thee. Behold I have 
graven thee upon the palms of my hands ; thy walls 
are continually before me. Thy children shall make 
haste ; thy destroyers and they that made thee waste 
shall go forth of thee.” 

In the above, Zion is represented as mourning in 
her desolation; being robbed and spoiled on every 
side, with no redress, she imagines her Lord has 
forgotten her. But she is informed that those who 
destroy her and make her waste shall be cast out, 
and that her children who have been cut off, shall, 
when raised from the dead, make haste to come ; and 
in view of their return God says to her, “ Lift up thine 
eyes round about, and behold, all these gather them¬ 
selves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith the 
Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as 


Christ’s reign without end. 169 

with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride 
doth.” 

“ Then shalt thou say in thine heart, who hath 
begotten me these, seeing I have lost my children, 
and am desolate, a captive, and roaming to and fro ? 
and who hath brought up these ? Behold I was left 
alone; these where had they been ?” She is repre¬ 
sented as being astonished when the multitude of her 
children come from the grave. “ Who hath brought 
up these ?” When Christ’s kingdom is established 
they are no longer a “ little flock.” “ For thy waste 
and thy desolate places, and the land of thy destruc¬ 
tion, shall even now be too narrow by reason of the 
inhabitants, and they that swallowed thee up shall be 
far away.” 

But there are some texts of scripture which speak 
of a kingdom as being already established; for 
instance the gospel dispensation may be called a 
kingdom, as in the parables; that is, a reign of 
heavenly principles. But that kingdom foretold by 
prophets, for the coming of which Christ taught his 
people to pray, is still future. There is a text, how¬ 
ever, which seems to teach that it is already estab¬ 
lished, made a prominent text with those who 
advocate that Christ is filling his kingly offices 
spiritually while his subjects are in the flesh, their 
first and last proof text. It is found in Luke xvii. 
21. “ The kingdom of God is within you.” Some 

texts isolated, seem to prove what they do not when 
connected with the context. 

“And when he was demanded of the Pharisees 


8 


170 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


when the kingdom of God should come, he answered 
them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with 
observation. Neither shall they say, lo here! or, lo 
there! for behold, the kingdom of God is within 
you.** 

The best critics, even on the other side of the 
question, render this text, “ in the midst of you ;** 
this rendering corresponds with the marginal read¬ 
ing ; which reads, “ among you.’* It would be a 
difficult text to understand without the marginal 
reading, even if the word of God taught in other 
places that the kingdom of God was in the Christian : 
for the persons whom Christ was addressing were 
Pharisees, and in their wicked unbelief, they were 
cavilling with him. He certainly would not teach 
us that the kingdom of God was in them. 

Mark their question : “ When shall the kingdom 
of God come ? ’* They might as well have asked of 
that day and hour of which he says, “ no man know- 
eth.** They speak of the kingdom as though it was 
still in the future, and he does not correct them, but 
admits it by his reply : “ the kingdom of God cometh 
not with observation,** or outward show ; neither 
shall they say, lo here! or, lo there! as of the 
coming of an earthly monarch ; but behold, sud¬ 
denly, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the 
dead are raised and the living changed, and Christ’s 
reign is established “ at his appearing and kingdom” 
in the midst of you. Then shall his angels gather 
out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those 
who do iniquity. 


Christ’s reign without end. 171 

But if the “ little flock/’ which was the church, 
the disciples, had the kingdom of God in them, or, 
if the church was the kingdom, then the words of 
the text were without meaning. “ Fear not, little 
flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give 
you the kingdom,” would be promising them what 
they already had. The kingdom is future, something 
that the church has not yet had granted her. 

Daniel, the prophet, was permitted to have a 
vision which extended to the judgment day.—Dan. 
vii. He says, “ I beheld till the thrones were 
cast down, and the Ancient of days did sit, whose 
garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head 
like the pure wool : his throne Avas like the fiery 
flame, and his wheels as burning fire. A fiery steam 
issued and came forth from before him : thousand 
thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand 
times ten thousand stood before him : the judgment 
was set, and the books ay ere opened. . . . And behold, 
one like the Son of man came with the clouds of 
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they 
brought him near before him. And there was given 
him dominion, and glory, and kingdom, that all 
people, nations, and languages, should serve him : 
his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall 
not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall 
not be destroyed.” 

In the above quotation, three important truths 
are clearly taught: that Christ’s kingdom is future ; 
that it will be established in connexion with the 
judgment day, and that its duration will be without 


172 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


end. And it is also implied, that this earth will be 
the location ; but there is no lack for witnesses of 
this truth. This whole scene is explained to the 
prophet. He is informed, 18tli verse, that “ the 
saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom, and 
possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and 
ever.” And in the 27th verse, the location is fixed : 
“ and the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness 
of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be 
given to the people of the saints of the Most High, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
dominions shall serve and obey him.” 

And still there is an abundance of testimony, some 
of which shall be brought forward ; not that the 
views advocated are not already well sustained, but 
because long cherished theories are not readily given 
up, and because we believe that the doctrine which 
promises so high and glorious a reign for the Church 
in this life, is calculated to quiet her while the 
enemy fortifies himself on every side ; the Church is 
unconcerned, perfectly confident of success; the 
world shall surely be converted; Christ will reign 
spiritually till he subdues them all by his grace, and 
we shall triumph gloriously. While the Man of Sin 
multiplies his converts, out-numbering the Church 
ten to one, with a zeal worthy a better cause. The 
work of years by the lonely missionary of the Church, 
is destroyed by his emissaries in a few months. 
That Man of Sin is daily rejoicing over his victories, 
while the Church is satisfied with the joy of antici¬ 
pated victory. 


Christ’s reign without end. 173 

Truly this reign for the Church in the flesh is 
Satan’s master-work to quiet all anxiety. It is cal¬ 
culated to make the church-member like Demas who 
forsook Paul, “ having loved this present world.” It 
holds out the prospect of long life and prosperity ; 
it puts far away the day of judgment ; it says to all, 
“ye shall surely have peace,” where God has not 
spoken peace. JBut instead of a long and triumphant 
reign in this mortal state, God says, “ Seeing then 
that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner 
of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation 
and godliness, looking for and hastening unto the 
coming of the day of God.” 

The fulfilment of the following prophecy, literally, 
so far as it has been fulfilled, were there no other proof, 
would be sufficient to show that Christ will reign in 
person on the earth. “ For unto us a child is born, 
unto us a son is given : and the government shall be 
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called 
Wonderful, Counsellor, The Mighty God, The Ever¬ 
lasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase 
of his government and peace there shall be no end, 
upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to 
order it, and to establish it with judgment and with 
justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of 
the Lord of hosts will perform this.”—Isaiah ix. 6, 7. 

Christ was the Son given, literally ; and by what 
exegetical rule can the remaining part be expected 
spiritually ? He has never had the throne of David. 
The oath of God to David cannot fail: “ Once have 
I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. 



174 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the 
sun before me.” And God commissioned his angel 
to repeat the same unto Mary, the mother of Jesus. 
“ The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of 
his father David; and he shall reign over the house 
of Jacob for ever : and of his kingdom there shall 
be no end.’ 7 —Luke i. 32, 38. 

Jeremiah has recorded a prophecy which sheds 
light an this subject. “ Behold, the days come, saith 
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous 
branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and exe¬ 
cute judgment and justice in the earth. In his day 
Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : 
and this is the name whereby he shall be called, 
THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” —Jer. 
xxiii. 5, 6. 

“ His day 77 refers to the time of his reign, the 
“ righteous Branch, 77 the King, whom God shall raise 
unto David. The present state of things shows that 
his righteous reign has not commenced, for every¬ 
thing is the very contrary to what it shall be in “ his 
day. 77 Judah is not saved, neither does literal Israel, 
or the true Israel, the church, dwell safely. Judg¬ 
ment and justice is not executed in the earth. For 
the land is full of oppression, and whoever pleads for 
the oppressed, “ maketh himself a prey. 77 And “judg¬ 
ment is turned away backward, and justice standeth 
afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity 
cannot enter. 77 When he shall reign he will execute 
judgment and justice in the earth. But Christ now 
refuses to judge, or to execute justice in the earth, 


Christ’s reign without end. 175 

and will refuse till lie come again. While on earth 
he said, “ I judge no man,” and “ if any man hear my 
words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came 
not to judge the world, but to save the world,” John 
xii. 47. He was then our Great Prophet, or Teacher, 
and he is now our priest. He still defers to judge or 
execute justice. “ Therefore judge nothing before the 
time, until the Lord coine, who both will bring to 
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make 
manifest the counsels of the hearts.”—1 Cor. iv. 5. 

How then can it be claimed that Christ is fulfilling 
this prophecy by a spiritual reign, while the prophet 
informs us that the “ King shall execute judgment 
and justice in the earth” when he reigns ? “ Fear not, 
little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to 
give you the kingdom.” 

The circumstances which called forth these encou¬ 
raging words to the little flock, will shed light on 
this subject. A man in trouble about his inheritance, 
interrupted the Saviour in the midst of a discourse. 
It appears that his brother liad'got *the whole posses¬ 
sion, and would not divide. He says, “ Master, 
speak to my brother that he divide the inheritance 
with me. And he said, man, who made me a judge 
or a divider over you ?” 

Jesus takes the occasion to exhort the people 
against covetousness. He brings before them the 
case of a man who had laid up much goods for many 
years ; who said to his soul, take thine ease, eat, drink, 
and be merry. “ But God said, thou fool, this night 
thy souLshall be required of thee. Then whose shall< 


176 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


these things be which thou hast provided ?” Having 
showed the foolishness of being so anxious for those 
things which they must soon die and leave, he exhorts 
them saying, “But rather seek ye the kingdom of 
God, and all these things shall be added unto you.” 
Then he turns from the multitude to his disciples, 
and says, “ Fear not, little flock; for it is your 
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” 
You who have forsaken houses and lands and all 
those things in seeking the kingdom of God, it is your 
Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. 

But that teaching which says the kingdom is 
already established, says also, that all those things 
shall be added in this life. Some of God’s suffering 
poor, under such teaching, must conclude that “ all 
these things” do not amount to much. 

How often have the pious suffered the most abject 
poverty. They have even perished with hunger. 
More than one Lazarus has lain at the rich man’s 
gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell 
from his table; *and from poverty and want has 
been escorted by angels to Abraham’s bosom. To 
comfort such in their wretchedness, they are told 
that the promise means all the good things which 
God sees necessary for them. In the case of these 
destitute ones, such a qualification of the promise cuts 
it down to nothing,—to absolute destitution. No, 
beloved friend, if you do truly seek the kingdom of 
God, the promise is not to be qualified. Jesus means 
all he says, and his words are not to be qualified in 
such a way. He will verify his word fully ; yes, they 


Christ’s reign without end. 


177 


will surpass “ exceedingly, abundantly, above all that 
we ask or think.” If thou art in poverty, and lack 
all these things, let not your heart be corroded with 
anxious thought. What if you and your children 
even die with hunger? Jesus says, “1 know thy 
poverty ; but thou art rich.” How ? “ Joint heirs 
with Christ,” who is heir of all things. He was rich, 
but for our sake he became poor, that we through his 
poverty might become rich. He knows not only thy 
poverty, but also the distress of long-continued fast¬ 
ing, and of craving hunger. These afflictions which 
are but for a moment, compared with eternity, “ shall 
work out for you a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory” in the world to come “ at his appear¬ 
ing and kingdom.” Then “ all these things shall be 
added unto you.” So Christ explained the promise ; 
for he follows the promise with an exhortation to 
provide themselves with “ a treasure in the heavens 
that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither 
moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there 
will your heart be also.” 

But again, Jesus says, Luke xxi. 31, “So likewise 
ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye 
that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.” The 
reader may learn by reading Matthew xxiv. and 
Mark xiii., in connexion with this chapter in 
Luke, that Christ had foretold a series of events 
from that time till he should come again. He says, 
27th verse, “ then shall they see the Son of man com¬ 
ing in a cloud, with power and great glory. And 
when these things begin to come to pass, then look 


178 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draw- 
eth nigh.” And “ when ye see these things come to 
pass, then know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh 
at hand —not yet come, or established, only nigh 
at hand. 

Why flatter ourselves that we have a king reign¬ 
ing, before his kingdom has come? before he has 
gathered his subjects ? Do we not greatly dishonor 
our King to suppose him reigning while his subjects 
are scattered, afflicted, suffering, perplexed, in trials 
and distress, buffeted by Satan, their names cast out 
as evil ? He is not reigning ; He is still suffering in 
sympathy with his people. He is seen by the Reve- 
lator, “as a Lamb newly slain,” before the throne, a 
living bleeding sacrifice for his people. He lives a 
Priest, he pleads his sufferings for us. His kingdom 
is not established, nor will it be, “ until the appearing 
of our Lord Jesus Christ; which in his times he shall 
show who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King 
of kings and Lord of lords.”—1 Tim. vi. 15. 


CHAPTER XVI. 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS OF THE INHERITANCE. 

“ Thus saith the Lord : A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, 
and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children, refused to be 
comforted for her children, because they were not. Thus saith the 
Lord: refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears; 
for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord; and they shall 
come again from the land of the enemy. And there is hope in 
thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again to 
their own border.”—J er. xxxi. 15-18. 

This portion of Scripture has been applied to the 
Jews while being carried away captive to Babylon. 
And Rachel has been represented as rising from the 
grave, and weeping over her descendants as they go 
bound into captivity. Those who so interpret it, 
find in the same Scripture a promise of their return 
to their own country again. “ They shall come again 
from the land of the enemy ; and there is hope in 
thine end, saith the Lord, that thy children shall 
come again to their own border.” 

However interesting and plausible such an inter¬ 
pretation may appear, yet we must dissent from it, 
because a New Testament writer has taken up this 
very scripture and explained it otherwise : therefore 


180 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


we have an infallible interpretation, given under the 
inspiration of God, and to it we appeal. 

The Evangelist Matthew claims the above Scrip¬ 
ture as a prophecy, and says that it was fulfilled 
when “ Herod sent forth and slew all the children 
that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, 
from two years old and under according to the time 
which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.” 
—Matt. ii. 

The rage of Satan, as manifested through that 
depraved and cruel governor, in so horrible an 
outrage on humanity, by the slaughter of so many 
innocent and unoffending children, the Spirit of 
Inspiration testified of beforehand, by the prophet; 
seeing also, that it was intimately connected with 
the first advent of Christ; for “ the testimony of 
Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” When on one 
occasion the brutal hands of jealousy were dipped 
in the blood of little children throughout all that 
country, opening the very fountains of tenderness in 
every bosom, causing all hearts in that region to 
bleed with anguish. 

Friends could not go abroad to sympathize with 
friends ; for children were massacred everywhere, 
and all hearts were wrung and torn with anguish 
over their own loved ones at home, murdered, cold, 
and lifeless. The sun never gave light on another 
funeral scene such as followed that monstrous 
slaughter. The whole country were seen moving in 
little groups while the piercing wails of those 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


181 


broken-hearted mothers filled all the land as they 
passed slowly on to the burying-places for the dead. 
Soon those places were crowded with persons deeply 
interested, for all were mourners. What “bitter 
weeping and lamentation;” what groans and cries 
from those stricken mothers, as they cling to the 
forms of their innocent ones, so soon to be placed in 
the cold prison-house of the common enemy, death. 
And after they had “ buried the dead out of their 
sight,” still they all wept, for all were heart-broken. 

Matthew says, “ then was fulfilled that which was 
spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, in Rama was 
there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and 
great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, 
and would not be comforted, because they were not.” 

Who could minister consolation, or what would 
comfort a people thus afflicted, living under a govern¬ 
ment so inhuman that would for the least pretence 
massacre their innocent children ? To whom could 
they turn for comfort? To God, who beheld the 
scene and knew how deep was the affliction, and 
knew too that it was preparing those mourners to 
sing that song with those “ who have come out of 
great tribulation ;” to Him who alone is competent 
to administer consolation to any thus afflicted. 
Their tears were numbered ; their groans and their 
cries came before Him. He also had given up his 
only begotten Son to die for a lost and wicked 
world, and he had but just come into the world ; 
and this sign follows as an evidence of Satan’s rage. 
—Rev. xii. 1-5. 


182 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


God pitied them ; for his children are as tender 
in his sight as the apple of the eye ; and he had 
foretold the scene by his prophet, and had prepared 
beforehand words of consolation for those afflicted 
families, and for all others like afflicted, who can 
believe his promise. He had promised those mothers 
in Israel, as found in the text, that he would watch 
over even the very dust of those infant martyrs for 
Jesus ; that he would restore them alive again as 
innocent and much more beautiful and glorious 
than when torn from their embrace by the ruthless 
hand of death ; that he would restore them not 
only to their believing mothers, but also to their 
own land and country, under a peaceful and right¬ 
eous government, that glorious kingdom and everlast¬ 
ing reign of the Prince of Peace, even Him for 
whom they had been martyred. “ Thus saith the 
Lord : refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine 
eyes from tears ; for thy work shall be rewarded, 
saith the Lord ; and they shall come again from the 
land of the enemy. And there is hope in thine end, 
saith the Lord, that thy children shall come again 
to their own border.” 

These truths as brought to view by the prophet, 
that the land of the enemy is the grave where those 
children were carried, and the promise of God that 
they shall come again to their own country, where 
the care and work of those mothers shall be rewarded, 
explained by Inspiration through the Evangelist, 
show that this earth shall be the final inheritance of 
the saints, when all their foes shall be conquered, and 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


183 


“ the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death/ 7 
1 Cor. xv. 26. And when God shall set his hand 
again to renew the face of the earth, and Abraham 
shall receive his inheritance, and “Daniel shall stand 
in his lot at the end of the days/ 7 then shall those 
little ones return from the land of the enemy, the 
grave, and shall come to Zion with songs of praise 
and everlasting joy on their heads. Those babes 
also who were slain in Egypt by Pharaoh’s cruel 
decree shall come ; so shall all those who have fallen 
by death in infancy. 

“ Our children thou dost claim, 

And mark them out for thine : 

Ten thousand blessings to thy name, 

For goodness so divine.” 

Some suppose the Bible to be quite silent on the 
subject of the salvation of infants. But that they are 
saved is a truth clearly revealed. So taught our 
Lord and the Apostles, as well as the “ sure word of 
prophecy. 77 “ But Jesus said, suffer little children and 
forbid them not to come unto me : for of such is the 
kingdom of heaven. 77 —Matt. xix. 14. Again it is 
written, “ And they brought young children unto 
him, that he should touch them ; and his disciples 
rebuked those who brought them. But when Jesus 
saw it, he was much displeased, and said unto them, 
suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid 
them not; for of such is the kingdom of God. Verily 
I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the king¬ 
dom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein. 


184 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


And he took them up in his arms, put his hands on 
them and blessed them.”—Mark x. 13-16. 

“ See Israel’s gentle Shepherd stand, 

With all engaging charms; 

Hark, how he calls the tender lambs, 

And folds them in his arms. 

‘Permit them to approach,’ he cries, 

‘ Nor scorn their humble name; 

For ’twas to bless such souls as these, 

The Lord of angels came.’ ” 

“ Of such is the kingdom of God.” As much as 
though he had said, These are the subjects of my 
kingdom. They are saved ; no better testimony is 
needed. Should Christ say of a Church, or any 
class of persons, “ Of such is the kingdom of God,” 
the evidence of their acceptance would be satisfac¬ 
tory. 

This conclusion the Apostle Paul sustains, Rom. 
v. 18. “ Therefore as by the offence of one judgment 
came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the 
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men 
unto justification of life.” 

“By the offence of one,” that is, Adam, “judgment 
came upon all men unto condemnation.” In Adam 
all were condemned. “ Even so by the righteousness 
of one,” that is Christ, “ the free gift came upon all 
men unto justification of life.” In Christ all are 
freely justified. If the all is unlimited in Adam, it is 
equally so in Christ. But if the free unmerited gift 
of justification has come upon all through Christ, 
“then will not all be saved?” inquires those who 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


185 


catch at the slightest hope. The answer is that all 
those who have not transgressed personally, them¬ 
selves, will most assuredly be saved. All mankind 
having been brought into the world in a state of 
infancy since Adam’s fall, though under the condem¬ 
nation of Adam’s sin, yet God has granted them a 
free justification through Christ. Therefore we are 
forbid to say, “ The fathers have eaten sour grapes 
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.” “ But 
every one shall die for his own iniquity.” “ The 
soul that sinneth, it shall die.” 

We know that this text in Romans is claimed to 
teach the salvation of all mankind ; but if this text 
is the only ground of their hope, there is nothing 
more sure than that all mankind who are grown up 
in sin are lost; for the sentence of death is still out 
against the transgressor ; and no man lives who has 
not sinned. If this is the extent of the atonement, 
none but infants can be saved. We see, therefore, 
that this boasted text for universal salvation does not 
reach the case of any personal transgressor. 

The atonement extends still further than this text, 
thanks be to our Father in heaven, so that even for 
those who have personally transgressed, there is sal¬ 
vation. God can be just and justify even actual sin¬ 
ners, who believe in Jesus ; therefore we plead for 
mercy in his name. 

The above testimony is sufficient that all are freely 
justified in infancy, and that those who die in that 
state are saved. Therefore says God to those whose 
children have been cut off in infancy, “they shall 


186 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


come again from the land of the enemy. 77 Christ 
shall destroy their enemy, death, and raise them from 
the dead, and beautify them with salvation, even 
more beautiful than when in health they looked up 
and smiled on you, before death took them from your 
embrace, breaking all those tender fibres of your soul. 
Thus saith the Lord to you, weeping mother, “ refrain 
thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears ; 
for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord. 77 

These truths greatly endear that blessed inherit¬ 
ance to us. Who will not have some little friends 
gathered there, to fill most gloriously the place God 
has appointed them in that heavenly country ? Thy 
toil, thy trials, thy pains, thy love, shall not be lost, 
“ for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the Lord. 77 
God has something very glorious in reserve for you, 
believing mothers, and for those jewels of his grace, 
in that inheritance, as we shall see. 

John, the beloved disciple, who was banished on 
the isle of Patmos for the word of the Lord, was per¬ 
mitted to see glorious visions of Canaan, as it shall 
be in the glorified and heavenly state. And among 
other things he saw that blessed infant band of 
cherubs, as they shall be when God shall redeem their 
bodies from the grave, standing with the Lamb of 
God on Mount Zion—Mount Zion so highly celebrated 
for its glory and beauty by the inspired bards of Israel. 
“ Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is 
Mount Zion, 77 even in its degenerate state under the 
curse, but when restored, filled with the glory of 
God. 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


1ST 


At the commencement of the book of Revelations; 
it is written, “ Blessed is he that readeth and they 
that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those 
things which are written therein.” Some of those 
heavenly scenes which John has recorded seem almost 
like bringing before us that glory which shall be 
revealed at the revelation of Jesus Christ, “when 
he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be 
admired in all them that believe.” In the following 
scene we see the prayer of the Psalmist answered, 
“ Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King.” 

“ And I looked, and lo, a Lamb stood on the 
Mount Zion, and with him an hundred forty and four 
thousand, having his Father’s name written in their 
foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven as the 
voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great 
thunder : and I heard the voice of harpers harping 
with their harps. And they sung as it were a new 
song before the throne, and before the four beasts, 
and the elders : and no man could learn that song 
but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which 
were redeemed from the earth. These are they 
which were not defiled with women : for they are 
virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb 
whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from 
among men, being the first fruits unto God and the 
Lamb. And in their mouth was found no guile : for 
they are without fault before the throne of God,” 
Rev. xiv. 1-5. 

Whoever carefully examines the above definite 
description of character, will acknowledge, we think, 


188 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


that it can be applied to no class of beings on earth 
or in heaven except to redeemed infants. 

They were of mankind, for “ they were redeemed 
from among men,” the subjects of redeeming grace. 

“ And they sung as it were a new song before the 
throne; and no man could learn that song but the 
hundred forty and four thousand.” 

The definite number, “ an hundred forty and four 
thousand,” is chosen for an indefinite number, for a 
vast multitude, as in other places in Revelation. 
For instance, twelve thousand are sealed of each of 
the twelve tribes of Israel, Rev. vii.: making one 
hundred and forty-four thousand ; not that there was 
just that number saved of each tribe, but that at the 
time to which the Revelator alluded the number that 
would be saved will be completed, and definitely 
fixed, for the day of salvation will be passed. 

Why could not others in that heavenly state learn 
the song which this company sang ? If it was 
written angels, could not learn the song, then it 
would have been true of all the redeemed ; for the 
song of redemption is a song which angels cannot 
sing. “No man could learn that song but” this 
company. Infants will sing a different song from 
adults. Adults will sing a song of redemption from 
actual transgression, while infants will sing a song 
of redemption from that original sin, and condemna¬ 
tion in Adam. 

“These are they which are not defiled with 
women : for they are virgins.” 

Woman was the first in the transgression ; and 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


189 


these had never followed the example; had never 
committed actual sin. According to the word of 
God, those are virgins with him who have never 
placed their affections on the world, or on improper 
objects of adoration. They had worshipped only at 
the altar of God. “ These are they which follow the 
Lamb whithersoever he goeth.” 

Christians follow Christ sometimes; and some¬ 
times they do not; but these have never committed 
sin, they follow Christ in meekness through suffering 
and death, and the resurrection, and they shall be 
with him on the holy Mount Zion. 

“These were redeemed from among men, being 
the first fruits unto God and the Lamb.” 

Being early ripe, in infancy, they were taken away 
from the evil to come, a rich and glorious harvest. 
Opening buds plucked from this mortal state before 
corrupted by the cankering worm, to bloom for ever 
in immortality in the coming kingdom of God. The 
first choice fruit of redeeming grace ; those precious 
ones which he shall gather when he maketh up the 
jewels of his love. 

Some have supposed, because they are called “ the 
first-fruits,” that they must be those who were raised 
from the dead at the resurrection of Christ; but those 
then raised would not answer the description given 
of this class, neither can it be applied in truth to 
adults. “First-fruits” is variously applied in the 
scriptures. 

“Now is Christ risen from the dead and become 
the first-fruits of them that slept:” In this text Christ 


190 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


is called “ the first-fruits’* of God’s great harvest, the 
resurrection of the righteous dead. 

“ Of his own will begat he us with the word of 
truth that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his 
creatures.” In this text the apostle James represents 
himself and his brethren as a kind of first-fruits of 
the gospel dispensation or Christian church. 

“Ye know the house of Stephanas, that it is the 
first-fruits of Achaia.” Here Stephanas’ family is 
called the first-fruits of the gospel in Achaia; and in 
the subject before us those who die in infancy are 
called “the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb.” 
Those saved under that first, unconditional applica¬ 
tion of the atonement, which would have saved all of 
the descendants of Adam, had none of them trans¬ 
gressed personally. They are those who were saved 
in the great work of redemption under that general 
application of the atonement to which we have 
referred. Rom. v. 18. Therefore are they called 
“ the first-fruits unto God and the Lamb.” 

“ And in their mouth was found no guile : for they 
are without fault before the Throne of God.” 

They had never sinned, in their mouth was found 
no guile; no craft, deceit, duplicity, treachery, nor 
sin. Had it been written, in their mouth is no guile 
it would have been applicable to all the redeemed 
being purified; but it is written in the past tense, 

“ was found no guile.” They had never transgressed. 
Those grown up in sin, though pardoned and saved, 
yet they are sinners pardoned ; but “ these are with 
out fault before the throne of God.” 


INFANTS LAWFUL HEIRS. 


191 


This multitude of infants will not be helpless as 
when in this state. “ There shall be no more thence 
an infant of days, nor an old man that has not filled 
his day.” No more the weaknesses of infancy nor the 
infirmities of old age.' “ But they which are accounted 
worthy to obtain that world and the resurrection 
from the dead are equal unto the angels,” who excel 
in strength and wisdom as well as beauty and glory. 

“Rachel weeping for her children refused to be 
comforted for her children because they were not.” 
They are not to you, yet they are to God j “ for all 
live unto him,” and he will bring them again from 
the land of the enemy. Think you, that then you 
will regret their being torn away from you ? I know 
the heart bleeds and the very cords of life are broken, 
and that the Holy One alone is able to render conso¬ 
lation. Then look to Him beyond the present appa¬ 
rent severity, and behold the goodness of God and 
see if He will not reward thy labor and work on these 
jewels of thine. Will you not be among the first to 
glorify and admire your blessed Lord in this his work 
of exalting these precious ones to be like himself in 
purity, excellency, and glory ? 

These truths, as seen in the word of God, are con¬ 
stantly increasing our interest in that heavenly coun¬ 
try, where this company of “harpers with their 
harps” shall sing that untold song of praise with the 
Lamb on Mount Zion. When these little ones are 
gloriously adorned with heavenly robes and are 
gathered in the morning of the resurrection to Mount 
Zion, having harps shall sing praises to the Lamb 


192 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


who has redeemed them, how it will reveal the glory 
of that gentle Shepherd, who, while in the flesh, 
kindly took them in his arms and blessed them, say¬ 
ing, “ of such is the kingdom of God.” Then Mount 
Zion will be truly the joy of the whole earth. 

“ Thus saith the Lord; a voice was heard in 
Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping ; Rachel 
weeping for her children refused to be comforted for 
her children, because they were not. finis saith the 
Lord; refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes 
from tears : for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the 
Lord; and they shall come again from the land of the 
enemy. And there is hope in thine end, saith the 
Lord, that thy children shall come again to their own 
border.” 


/ 




CHAPTER XVII. 

MINISTRY OP ANGELS. 

“For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to 
come, whereof we speak.”—H eb. ii. 5. 

Those high and holy beings who stand in the pre¬ 
sence of God, and delight to do his commandments, 
are represented throughout the Scriptures as being 
deeply interested in the welfare of men, in the affairs 
of the world, in seeking to restore this revolted 
dominion to its lawful Sovereign, in the restoration of 
its inhabitants to a peaceful possession of their for¬ 
feited inheritance; and the inference from this text 
is, that this world is, in its present state, put in sub¬ 
jection to the angels. 

The apostle, just previous to the text, having 
spoken of the work and ministry of angels, says, 
“ For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and 
every transgression and disobedience received a just 
recompense of reward; how shall we escape if we 
neglect so great salvation.” Stephen also in his 
defence before the Jewish counsel, while enumerating 
the sins of their fathers, said, “ Who have received the 
law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it 
but the world to come he hath not put in subjection to 
angels. Those who are accounted worthy to attain 
9 


194 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


unto that age, will be their equals, when all things 
shall be restored in subjection to man as originally, 
with the Creator in glorified humanity at their head. 
This idea is beautifully expressed in the following 
verse by Doctor Watts. 


“ The world to come, redeemed from all 
The miseries which attend the fall. 
New made, and glorious, shall submit 
At our exalted Saviour’s feet.” 


Man in this present state is in his infancy; he 
comes into being the most feeble and helpless of crea¬ 
tures, but God has set before him, in the Gospel, the 
hope of becoming the highest and most glorious of 
created beings. 

Did that fallen angel, the Devil, envy man while 
in that blessed state of innocency, how does his 
envy rage now, knowing, as he does, that humanity 
shall be exalted higher than before the fall, even to 
the throne of the Eternal God in the person of 
Christ ? and that Christ now says to those who over¬ 
come that wicked one “ will I grant to sit with me in 
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down 
with my Father in his throne.' 7 

“ How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, 

How complicate, how wonderful, is man! 

How passing wonder He who made him such 1 
Who centred in our make such strange extremes! 

From different natures marvellously mixed. 

Connexion exquisite of distant worlds! 

Distinguished link in being’s endless chain! 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


195 


Midway from nothing to the Deity 1 
A beam ethereal, sullied and absorbed! 

Though sullied and dishonored, still divine I 
Dim miniature of greatness absolute! 

An heir of glory! a frail child of dust! 

Helpless immortal! insect infinite! 

A worm! a god I”—Young. 

But our Heavenly Father has made ample pro¬ 
visions for us in our weakness and infancy in this 
present fallen state. He has not only given his Son 
to redeem us from the fall, to raise and exalt us to 
himself, and the Holy Spirit to take the things of 
Christ and show them unto us, but also, pitying us as 
a father pities his children, he has commissioned the 
holy angels to become our guardians. 

“ Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth 
to minister for those who shall be heirs of salvation ?” 
In our very infancy they begin this labor of love. 
Jesus having placed a little child in the midst of his 
disciples, said, “ Take heed that ye despise not one 
of these little* ones : for I say unto you that in heaven 
their angels do always behold the face of my Father.” 

Not one alone to accompany them, but many; 
“ their angels do always behold the face of my Father.” 
Think of it, anxious parent. Those holy beings 
sympathize with you, in deep solicitude for the wel¬ 
fare of your children. You cannot endure the 
thought of their being despised, or even slighted ; 
neither can Jesus. “ Take heed that you despise not 
one of these little ones,” for their angels will appear 
against you before “ the face of my Father which is in 


196 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


heaven.” How precious is a little child in the sight 
of God and the holy angels, as seen in the light of this 
declaration by Him who alone can reveal the mind 
of the Father. Again says Christ, “ Whoso shall 
receive one such little child in my name receiveth 
me.” Again, “ It were better for him that a millstone 
were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, 
than that he should offend one of these little ones,” 
or cause one of these little ones to stumble. Such a 
revelation of the interest manifested m heaven in be¬ 
half of a child, speaks volumes of man’s high destiny, 
of the worth of the soul, of the eternal weight of glory 
which shall encircle the redeemed in the endless age 
to come. Therefore said Jesus, “ There is joy in the 
presence of the angels of God over one sinner that 
repenteth.” 

The angels are represented as taking part in the 
affairs of this world as early as the fall; at which 
time man seems to have been placed in subordination 
to them. “ So he drove out the man ; and he placed 
at the east of the garden of Eden, Chewibims, and a 
flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep the 
way of the tree of life.” And in the history of the 
world, whenever those holy beings have been seen, 
they have been found deeply interested in the affairs 
of men ; either aiding, assisting, and ministering to 
the humble, obedient servants of God, or opposing, 
resisting, and executing the wrath of an offended 
God on those who will not submit to his righteous 
government. 

How encouraging to the humble servants of God 


MINISTRY OP ANGELS. 


197 

to know that the Eternal Jehovah is not only engaged 
in their salvation, but that He has given charge to 
all those holy intelligences who dwell in his presence, 
and delight in his commandments, to minister to his 
children, to deal kindly with them, to aid them in the 
way of righteousness. And how appalling to the 
disobedient, to know that not only the Eternal is 
arrayed against them, for their resistance to his 
righteous government, but also all those mighty 
beings who obey his commandments stand ready to 
execute on them his indignation. 

“ Though the eyes of the Lord are in every place, 
beholding the evil and the good,” yet when the sins 
of Sodom had increased beyond forbearance, and the 
Lord personally, in company with two angels, visits 
Abraham, “ the friend of Hod,” to inform him of what 
he is about to do, he speaks of Sodom only in refer¬ 
ence to the reports, which had been brought to him 
by those holy beings who came before him in faithful¬ 
ness with the dark and loathsome crimes of Sodom ; 
showing that the angels have charge of the affairs of 
this world. 

The courteous conversation of the Lord with the 
angels, and with “ Abraham, his friend,” is worthy 
our special notice. As they were walking towards 
Sodom, “and Abraham went with them, to bring 
them on their way,” the Lord said, addressing the 
angels, “ Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which 
I do?” How much like Jesus, while with his disci¬ 
ples He says, “ Henceforth I call you not servants ; 
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; 


198 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


but I have called you friends ; for all things that I 
have heard of my Father, I have made known to 
you . 77 The Lord proceeds to offer a reason for tell¬ 
ing him : “ Seeing that Abraham shall surely become 
a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed in him ; for I know him, that 
he will command his children and his household after 
him, and they shall keep the way of ttie Lord, to do 
justice and judgment; that the Lord may bring upon 
Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And 
the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomor¬ 
rah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, 
I will go down now, and see whether they have done 
altogether according to the cry of it, which is come 
unto me ; and if not, I will know. 77 —Gen. xviii. 

We are here taught, that while angels are set 
over the affairs of this world, they faithfully bring 
all the acts of men before the Lord for the wisdom 
of his counsel, and to wait his commands ; and, 
although God is omniscient, yet before he will “ do 
his strange work , 77 that of executing judgment on 
the wicked, he will personally examine their case. 
He says : “ I will go down now and see whether 
they have done altogether according to the cry of 
it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know . 77 
Hence Christ refers to the overthrow of Sodom and 
Gomorrah to illustrate the judgment scene. 

All the host of heaven engaged in man 7 s well¬ 
doing, yet his sins cry aloud for the judgment of 
God ! What swift witnesses will those heavenly 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


199 


messengers become against the finally impenitent in 
the day of judgment! 

“ And the men turned their faces from thence, and 
went towards Sodom.” 

A.ngels were often taken to be men, and are 
described in the Scriptures as having the appearance 
of men. It appears that Abraham had entertained 
the Lord and these two angels as three men, stran¬ 
gers.—Gen. xviii. 1, 2. 

The angels went to give those among the Sodom¬ 
ites for whom there was any hope, their last warning, 
and to separate the few righteous from the wicked. 
“ But Abraham stood before the Lord.” Thus 
honored, the father of the faithful stood before the 
Lord. It seems, as they were walking and talking, 
God having revealed the terrible truth to Abraham, 
that he steps in before him, as a friend would step 
before another, that he might stop him, and there he 
pleads before him, truly, as a 11 friend ” pleading 
with a friend, for that doomed people. 

And oh ! what an argument he brings before the 
righteous Judge of all the earth ! “ And Abraham 

drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the 
righteous with the wicked?” Abraham knew the 
Lord, and he knew how to approach him ; “ for he 
was the friend of God.” Oh, honored man! He 
knew that the LQrd loved the righteous, and that he 
was a just God ; and he continued to plead. 

“ Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the 
city : wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place 
for the fifty righteous that are therein ? That be far 


200 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


from tliee to do after this manner, to slay the 
righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous 
be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not 
the Judge of all the earth do right ? 

“And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty right¬ 
eous within the city, then I will spare all the place 
for their sakes.” 

Though Abraham was “ called the friend of God,” 
and he had just entertained Him at his tent as a 
friend, also two of the heavenly messengers with 
him, not as humble servants, but as four friends they 
met, and sat together ; they had walked, and talked 
together. But when Abraham hears the answer of 
God to his pleading, and sees how he regards the 
righteous ; that he would not only save the righteous, 
but spare the wliyle place for their sakes, he is 
greatly humbled. 

“ And Abraham answered and said, Behold now I 
have taken upon me to speak before the Lord, which 
am but dust and ashes.” 

Though he is greatly humbled, and feels his own 
nothingness while standing before the Lord, still his 
argument had such power, he pleads on with humble 
boldness ; he lowers down the number, and pleads 
again, and the Lord grants his request. And still 
he lowers down the number and pleads, and still the 
Lord grants his request; and every^ answer seems to 
humble “ the friend of God.” And yet he is embold¬ 
ened to plead; and finally cries, “Oh, let not the 
Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once ; 
Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, 


MINISTRY OP ANGELS. 


201 


I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. And the Lord 
went his way as soon as he had left communing with 
Abraham ; and Abraham returned to his place.” 
That night Lot, in entertaining strangers, “ enter¬ 
tained angels unawares,” as Abraham had the day 
before. 

“ And there came two angels to Sodom at even¬ 
ing ; and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom ; and Lot 
seeing them, rose up to meet them ; and he bowed 
himself with his face toward the ground : and he 
said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into 
your servant’s house and tarry all night, and wash 
your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your 
ways. And they said, Nay ; but we will abide in 
the street all night. And he pressed upon them 
greatly ; and they turned in unto him, and entered 
into his house ; and he made them a feast, and did 
bake unleavened bread, and they did eat,” Gen. xix. 

Happy for Lot, and praise to God, for his saving 
grace, that the communications of that polluted 
loathsome city had not “ corrupted his good man¬ 
ners.” 

Lot had been accustomed to better society ; he 
was the friend of Abraham, and had been reared 
with him until manhood, and his influence was not 
lost. But he had been “ vexed with the filthy con¬ 
versation of the wicked ; for that righteous man 
dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing ; vexed 
his righteous soul from day to day with their unlaw¬ 
ful deeds.” 

Yet Lot is affable and kind, he does not know the 
9 * 


202 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


errand of the strangers, nor stop to inquire who they 
are, or of their standing and dignity ; but it was 
enough for him to know that strangers in their way 
had stopped to tarry for the night in that corrupt 
city. 

In that age travellers being dependent on the 
hospitality of the people, the good man hastened to 
meet them, and bowing himself most respectfully, 
welcomes them, and generously offers to entertain 
them in his own house ; and while they modestly 
declined, offering to tarry in the street, as many of 
the poor, perhaps, did, “he pressed upon them 
greatly for the good man knew, not only how 
corrupt the people were, but also that there was no 
generosity in the place. 

Sodom was like the present age in that respect. 
The earth now brings forth an abundance, and the 
proud and haughty roll in luxury and wealth, while 
the children of the poor, being neglected, have to 
beg ; and are even seen in our cities gathering with 
their tiny hands the crumbs which are cast aside in 
pails and tubs for the swine. 

“ As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom thy sister 
hath not done, she nor her daughters, as thou hast 
done, thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the 
iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread 
and abundance of idleness was in her' and in her 
daughters, neither did she strengthen the hands of 
the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and 
committed abomination before me: therefore I took 
them away as I saw good.” 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


203 


This charge could not be brought against Sarah, 
Abraham’s wife, who had with her own hands made 
cakes for those same noble guests ; while she consi¬ 
dered them only travellers, who being on their journey 
had stopped near her tent, under a shade-tree to rest 
themselves. How many mothers or daughters of 
households as wealthy as- Abraham’s, would in these 
days, knead dough, and make cakes with their own 
hands in charity for strangers ? 

Two angels are Lot’s guests, but it is Sodom’s last 
night, and her darkest in depravity; for God had 
numbered the days of Sodom, and finished them, and 
the Holy Spirit had left the people. Oh, dreadful 
state! They ran mad in corruption; their crimes, 
which may not be named, called loudly for the fire of 
an offended God. 

But why are angels there? Because there is a 
righteous man in the city, and he needs their presence 
and their guardian care, for he must be taken away 
before the fire of a just God can fall on the wicked. 

How precious is a good man for a friend! Even 
as many of his friends as can be prevailed on to leave 
are saved for his sake. But how terribly wretched 
is that people from whom the Spirit of God has with¬ 
drawn! Their mad passions would corrupt every¬ 
thing pure in the city, seeking even vengeance on 
Lot for his kindness to the strangers. “ And they 
pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near 
to break the door. But the men (the angels) put 
forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house to 
them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men 


204 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


that were at the door of the house with blindness, 
both small and great; so that they wearied them¬ 
selves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, 
Hast thou any here besides? Son-in-law, and thy 
sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in 
the city, bring them out of this place ; for we will 
destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen 
great before the face of the Lord ; and the Lord hath 
sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake 
unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, 
and said, Up, get you out of this place ; for the Lord 
will destroy this city ; but he seemed as one that 
mocked unto his sons-in-law. 77 

As blind as they were corrupt, they could see no 
danger; peace and prosperity and a long life was 
before them. In their estimation Lot was frightened, 
and had got crazy ; his warning was nonsense to 
them ; “ he seemed as one that mocked. 77 

“ And when the morning arose, then the angels has¬ 
tened Lot, saying, Arise, and take thy wife and thy two 
daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the 
iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men 
laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his 
wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the 
Lord being merciful unto him ; and they brought him 
forth and set him without the city. And it came to 
pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that 
he said, Escape for thy life ; look not behind thee ; 
neither stay thou in all the plain ; escape to the 
mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto 
them, 0 not so, my Lord! Behold, now, thy servant 


MINISTRY OP ANGELS. 


205 


hath found grace in thv sight, and thou hast magni¬ 
fied thy mercy, which thou hast shown unto me in 
saving my life ; and I cannot escape to the mountain, 
lest some evil take me and I die; behold, now, this 
city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh, 
let me escape thither! (is it not a little one ?) and 
my soul shall live.” 

The Lord was now there in person, and Lot’s 
prayer was addressed to him ; and the Lord answered, 
and said, “ See, I have accepted thee concerning 
this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, 
for the which thou hast spoken.” One of the cities 
of the plain is saved purely for Lot’s sake. “ Haste 
thee, escape thither ; for I cannot do anything till 
thou be come thither ; therefore the name of the city 
was called Zoar. The sun was risen upon the earth 
when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained 
upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire 
from the Lord out of heaven ; and he overthrew those 
cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the 
cities, and that which grew upon the ground.” 

But there is a day coming, compared by our Saviour 
to the overthrow of Sodom, when angels shall take 
away the righteous, and none shall be saved on the 
account of friends. “ And he shall send his angels 
with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall 
gather together his elect from the four winds, from 
one end of heaven to the other.” There ministration 
will not be accomplished for the heirs of salvation, 
till God’s chosen are all gathered in the great harvest 


206 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


of the world. “ Then shall two be in the field : the 
one shall be taken, the other left.” 

The power and wisdom of these holy beings, their 
ability to take the supervision of this world to be the 
guardians of men, is apparent in those services they 
have performed, which men have been permitted to 
witness. 

One of them whose work was higher than that of 
Moses and Aaron, is commissioned to take the lead 
of the thousands of Israel from Egypt through the 
wilderness to the land of Canaan. 

“ Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee 
in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I 
have prepared. Beware of him and obey his voice, 
provoke him not; for he will not pardon your trans¬ 
gressions : for my name is in him.” Thus the chil¬ 
dren of Israel acknowledge, “ And when we cried 
unto the Lord he heard our voice and sent an angel, 
and hath brought us forth out of Egypt.” 

When Pharaoh and his host of warriors pursued 
Israel and overtook them by the sea, though God 
opened a way for them through the sea, still they 
need the angel’s tender care, for among his people 
are the aged and the young, their wives and their 
little ones, and the Egyptians might rush on them in 
dreadful slaughter before the many families of Israel 
could pass through. 

“ And the angel of God which went before the 
camp of Israel, removed, and went behind them ; and 
the pillar of the cloud went from before their face, 
and stood behind them: and it came between the 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


207 


camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel; and 
it was a cloud and darkness to them, but it gave light 
by night to these : so that the one came not near the 
other all night.” 

As the angel smote the Sodomites with blindness 
so that they wearied themselves to find the door, now 
he covers the Egyptians with thick darkness, but 
sheds a halo of light among the people of his care. 
Thus this holy guardian filled his sacred trust, 
resisting those haughty, proud oppressors, while he 
exercised a mother’s tenderness over the afflicted and 
oppressed. As one of their prophets afterwards said, 
“ In all their afflictions he was afflicted, and the angel 
of his presence saved them: in his love and in his 
pity he redeemed them ; and he bare them and car¬ 
ried them all the days of old.” 

In the days of Hezekiah, when the Assyrians had 
invaded the land of Israel, and besieged Jerusalem 
with a great army, so that the people of Jerusalem 
trembled while the enemy boasted of their conquests, 
and reproached and blasphemed the God of heaven. 
But good Hezekiah made intercession to God, and his 
prayer is heard, and God commissions an angel to 
defend Jerusalem. 

“ And it came to pass that night, that the angel of 
the Lord went out, and smote in the camp of the 
Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand.” 
Thus we see that these guardians whom God has com¬ 
missioned to minister to the heirs of salvation, have 
strength and power equal to their charge. 

Also, the glory of their appearance equals their 


208 THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 

power and wisdom ; and whether he slew those bold 
blasphemers by the strength of his arm, or by the 
glory of his presence revealed before them, or by his 
power over the elements, separating the component 
parts of the air, causing instant death to the multi¬ 
tude, we are not informed; but from what they have 
done it is evident he had power by either to accom¬ 
plish his work. 

That they have power to use the elements to serve 
their purpose is evident from the act of the angel who 
manifested himself to Manoah and his wife, the 
parents of Sampson. They being pleased with his 
promise, offer an offering of thanksgiving, still sup¬ 
posing him only to be a man of God. “ So Manoah 
took a kid, with a meat-offering, and offered it upon 
a rock unto the Lord; and the angel did wonder- 
ously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.” 

Now he would more fully impress them with the 
importance of his mission and the necessity of keeping 
his sayings: “ For it came to pass, when the flame 
went up towards heaven from off the altar, that the 
angel of the lord ascended in the flame of the altar, 
and Manoah and his wife looked on it, and fell on 
their faces to the ground.** 

A very singular power was manifested by that angel 
who appeared to the Roman soldiers, and to those 
women before the sepulchre at the resurrection of 
Christ. While the glory of his presence strikes the 
soldiers with terror, and they fall as dead men before 
him, he appears to those humble women, whose love 
of Christ had brought them early to the sepulchre, 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


209 


as a gentle friend, saying, “ Fear not ye ; for I know 
that ye seek Jesus, which was crucified. He is not 
here: for he is risen, as he said. Come, see the 
place where the Lord lay.” Having rolled back the 
stone placed to secure the door of the sepulchre, he 
gently seats himself on it, and invites them kindly to 
come and see the vacated tomb, that they might be 
confirmed that the Lord had risen. After they had 
looked into the sepulchre, he tells them to do the 
very thing, no doubt, that they were anxious to do : 
14 Go quickly, and tell his disciples that he is risen 
from the dead, and behold, he goeth before you into 
Galilee ; there shall ye see him : lo ! I have told 
you.” But to the soldiers, “ His countenance was like 
lightning, and his raiment white as snow. And for 
fear of him, the keepers did shake, and became as 
dead men.” 

. So we see that when the angel would hinder 
Pharaoh and his fellow-oppressors, he covers them 
with thick darkness, vessels of wrath fitted for 
destruction ; but again, when he would awe that 
corrupt band of soldiers, who could be so easily 
bribed by a still more corrupt priesthood, to lie 
concerning the resurrection of Christ, his counte¬ 
nance is as terrible as the lightning. 

“ Bless the Lord, ye his angels, that excel in 
strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto 
the voice of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye 
his hosts ; ye ministers of his that do his pleasure.” 

Though they are thus highly exalted in strength 
and power, and in wisdom and glory, yet they are 


210 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


meek and humble ; careful to do nothftig without 
the command of their God, manifesting all humility. 
But puny men, as Jude says, “ despise dominion, and 
speak evil of dignities ; yet Michael the archangel, 
when contending with the devil, he disputed about 
the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a 
railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.” 

Like their Lord, while in the flesh, who delighted 
to frequent that humble family of orphans, Mary, 
Martha, and Lazarus, so they have generally been 
permitted to honor the most humble abodes of men 
with a manifestation of their presence. 

Hagar, the bond-woman, is cast out with her child ; 
she wanders in a dry and barren wilderness till she 
and her child are ready to perish with thirst. Dis¬ 
tracted with the cries and agonies of her child, and 
with parching thirst, she lays him under a bush to die. 
“ And she went, and sat her down over against him, 
a good way off, as it were, a bowshot; for she said, 
Let me not see the death of the child.” With no 
power to relieve his dying thirst, “ she sat over 
against him and lifted up her voice and wept.” 

God saw her, and had compassion on her, and he 
“ heard the voice of the lad : and the angel of God 
called to Hagar out of heaven, and said unto her : 
What aileth thee, Hagar ? Fear not, for God hath 
heard the voice of the lad where he is. Arise, lift 
up the lad and hold him in thine hand ; for I will 
make him a great nation. And God opened her 
eyes, and she saw a well of water.” She was a poor 
outcast bond-woman, with her child, in the wilder- 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


211 


ness ; they were crying in distress. God hears the 
voice of Ishmael, and sees Hagar’s tears : and the 
attention of those high and holy beings who dwell 
in his presence was arrested, and being ready to 
obey his voice, quickly one descends and gently calls 
her name, soothes her aching heart, supplies her 
present need, and assures her of the future special 
care of her God. 

The rapidity of their flight is beyond our imagi¬ 
nation to comprehend. 

Peter is cast into prison ; the Church assembles, 
and prayer is made without ceasing for him ; God in 
heaven hears and answers ; a swift messenger is sent; 
he quickly descends from before the glorious presence 
of his God into the loathsome prison, and a light 
shines in the dark cell; the chains fall from Peter 
before his wondrous touch, and he says to him, “ Arise 
up quickly, and bind on thy sandals, and cast thy 
garments about thee, and follow me.” The iron 
gate opens before his mysterious hand, seemingly 
of its own accord. Peter, being set free, directs his 
steps to the house of prayer, perhaps under the guid¬ 
ance of the same ministering spirit, but now unseen. 
The meeting has not closed ; they are still at prayer. 
Thus speedily they do the will of God ; they tarry 
not on an errand of mercy to the heirs of salvation. 

Daniel, a captive, a slave, nevertheless a prophet 
of God, is at prayer ; he had been studying the pro¬ 
phecies of Jeremiah concerning the time of the de¬ 
liverance of his people from captivity. But he mis¬ 
understands the prophecy, and supposes the time ful- 


212 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


filled ; he humbles himself before God with fasting 
and prayer, with repentance and deep humility ; he 
confesses and bewails his sins, and the sins of his 
people, Israel. 

He says, Dan. ix. 2, 3, “ I, Daniel, understood by 
books the number of the years whereof the word of 
the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would 
accomplish seventy years in the desolation of Jerusa- 
lem. And I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek 
by prayer and supplications, with fasting, and sack¬ 
cloth, and ashes. And I prayed unto the Lord my 
God, and made my confession, and said, 0 Lord, the 
great and dreadful God, keeping the covenant and 
mercy to them that love him, and keep his command¬ 
ments ; we have sinned.” 

He goes on enumerating the crimes of his people, 
and humbly confessing that they had merited all the 
evil the Lord had brought on them. And in the 16th 
verse he begins to pray especially for the restoration 
of his people, which he supposes God was about to 
accomplish, saying, “ 0 Lord, according to all thy 
righteousness, I beseech thee, let thine anger and thy 
fury be turned away from thy city, Jerusalem, thy 
holy mountain : because for our sins and for the ini¬ 
quities of our fathers, Jerusalem and thy people are 
become a reproach to all that are about us.” 

Daniel had been searching for the termination of 
the time of the seventy years’ captivity of the Jews, 
foretold by Jeremiah ; but he was laboring under a 
mistake; the time was not quite fulfilled. He was 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


213 


applying even a vision which God had given him, in 
the previous chapter, to the restoring of his people. 

And he says, 21st verse, “ Yea, while I was speak¬ 
ing in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had 
seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to 
fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening 
oblation. And he informed me, and talked with me, 
and said, 0 Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee 
skill and understanding. At the beginning of thy 
supplications the commandment came forth and I am 
come to show thee ; for thou art greatly beloved : 
therefore understand the matter and consider the 
vision.” 

The angel who, standing in the presence of God in 
heaven, says he received the command to come and 
instruct Daniel at the commencement of his supplica¬ 
tion, and being caused to fly swiftly, he arrives before 
Daniel concluded his prayer. Thus we see how 
rapid is their power of flight. But he does not 
reprove Daniel for searching the time, or reproach 
him for his mistake, but says, “Thou art greatly 
beloved, and I have come to give thee skill and 
understanding.” 

The number of these wise and holy beings, who 
thus excel in wisdom, strength, and flight, who wait 
before the Lord to do his pleasure, is worthy our 
consideration. 

When Peter would defend his master, Jesus says, 
“ Put up again thy sword into his place : for all they 
that take the sword shall perish with the sword. 
Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, 


214 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


and he shall presently give me more than twelve 
legions of angels ?” 

At the sitting of the Ancient of days as seen by 
Daniel, “thousand thousands ministered unto him, 
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before 
him.” And the Revel'ator says, “ I heard the voice 
of many angels round about the throne, and the 
beasts and the elders : and the number of them was 
ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of 
thousands.” 

These high and holy beings so far excel all our 
ideas of greatness, beauty, and glory, that John, who 
had even seen his Lord glorified, and was so over¬ 
come with his glory that he fell at his feet as a dead 
man, yet he mistakes the angel who ministered to 
him on the isle of Patmos, for the Lord himself, and 
bows down at his feet to worship him. But the 
angel forbad him at once, saying, “ See thou do it 
not: for I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren 
the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of 
this book : worship God.” 

These are the beings who minister to the heirs of 
salvation ; constantly attending God 7 s people. “ The 
angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that 
fear him, and delivereth them.” 

When Daniel is cast into the den of lions, one 
enters before him, unseen by his proud persecutors, 
and shuts the mouths of those terrible beasts, fitted 
by hunger to devour their victims ; and that beloved 
child of God lacks not the presence of a glorious and 
powerful friend during the night; even in the lions' 


MINISTRY OP ANGELS. 


215 


den. And when the king, who had been lamenting 
all night Daniel’s fate, and his own folly and pride 
which had suffered Daniel’s persecutors to prevail on 
him to pass so foolish a decree, came in the morning 
to the den, and called to Daniel with “ a lamentable 
voice, saying, 0 Daniel, servant of the living God, is 
thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to 
deliver thee from the lions ? Then said Daniel unto 
the king, 0 king, live for ever. My God hath sent 
his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths, that they 
have not hurt me : forasmuch as before him inno- 
cency was found in me ; and also before thee, 0 king, 
have I done no hurt.” 

Often are men strangely and wonderfully preserved 
in the midst of the most imminent danger ; and happy 
for them if, as Daniel, they ascribe it to God, through 
the guardians of his people. Thus our benefactors 
are constantly aiding us in this world, and we see 
them not. 

When the enemies of Israel turned their bitter ani¬ 
mosity against Elisha the servant of God, and a large 
Assyrian army had overtaken him at night, Elisha’s 
friend who was with him, on rising in the morning, 
discovered that they were surrounded by the enemy ; 
he hastened in alarm to inform Elisha, saying, “ Alas, 
my master! how shall we do ? And he answered, 
Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they 
that be with them. And Elisha prayed, and said, 
Lord, I pray thee, open the eyes of the young man; 
and he saw, and behold, the mountain was full of 
horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.” 


216 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


Then Elisha asks that the enemy might all be made 
blind, and suddenly they are smote with blindness. 
And now he leads them into the midst of Samaria, 
where they were surrounded by their enemies. But 
Elisha forbids the king of Israel to smite them, and 
prays God to open their eyes, and he had a feast 
made for them, and then sent them home to their own 
country, which ended the war. Thus these guardians 
deliver his people, when it will work for their good 
and the glory of God. 

Thomas Dick thinks that a part of the enjoyment 
of the saints in the world to come will be the study 
of their history, and the history of the angels. If so, 
how interesting will it be to learn who our kind 
guardians were, and what tender care they took of 
us during those days of our infancy, while passing 
through this vale of tears. 

Our present knowledge of our heavenly Father's 
kind care and good will towards us, is more limited 
than the infant's of its parent's good will and tender¬ 
ness. Said Jesus to his disciples, “ I have yet many 
things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear them 
now." 

In this world we know in part; “ for now we see 
through a glass, darkly ; but then, face to face." 
Then we shall become their fellows, “ For unto the 
angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, 
whereof we speak." Those who are accounted 
worthy to attain unto that age and the resurrection, 
are equal unto the angels; and are the children of 
God, being “ the children of the resurrection." 


MINISTRY OF ANGELS. 


217 


In the world to come, in the glorious restitution, 
when we are quickened or made alive by the life-giv¬ 
ing power of the second Adam, we shall not need one 
to pray that our eyes may be opened ; for then we shall 
see as we are seen. Said Jesus to Nathaniel, “be¬ 
cause I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig-tree 
believest thou ? Thou shalt see greater things than 
these. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, hereafter ye 
shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascend¬ 
ing and descending upon the Son of man.” 

This promise of Christ to Nathaniel is yet to be 
fulfilled, and in the world to come there will not 
only be a communication between heaven and earth 
opened, but our eyes shall no longer be withheld ; we 
shall see the promise to Nathaniel fulfilled, “the 
angels of God ascend and descend upon the Son of 
man.” So also may the redeemed ascend and 
descend, for they shall be equal to the angels. Even 
all that Thomas Dick anticipates in his excellent 
work, the “Philosophy of the Future State,” may 
be realized, and much more, during the annals of 
eternity. 

For if man in this state is in his infancy, what 
shall he become when the degenerating influence of sin 
is removed, and the weaknesses of infancy are passed ? 
Every additional truth enlarges the mind, rendering 
it more capable of clasping the next, and being per¬ 
mitted to explore the universe and learn the wonders 
of its mysteries, the mind shall continue to expand, 
and his ideas of the Creator be still more exalted, and 
his worship more sublime. Surely the love and care 
10 


218 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


our heavenly Father has manifested for us, speaks 
the greatness of our future destiny. 

And if these high and holy beings manifested such 
deep interest and joy in our welfare on the occasion 
of the birth of Christ being announced to the shep¬ 
herds by one of them, so that “ suddenly there was 
with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host prais¬ 
ing God, saying, Glory to God in the highest, and 
on earth peace, good will toward men,” what shall 
be their song of praise when Ghrist shall have re¬ 
deemed his chosen from the grave, and from all the 
effects of sin, and shall have beautified them with 
salvation, and restored them to their dominion, 
turned as the garden of God? Or in short, what 
shall be their joy and song of praise, when the object 
of his coming into this world, of his suffering and 
death, shall be accomplished ? 

Will not all the sons of God shout again for joy, 
as when the morning stars sang together ? 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


NO COVENANTS OR PROMISES TO JEWS MORE THAN TO 
GENTILES. 

“ Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, 
though we have known Christ after the flesh; yet now henceforth 
know we him no more.”—2 Cor. y. 16. 

In connexion with the temporal millennium it is 
also taught that the Jews after the flesh are to be 
restored to the land of their fathers ; that old “ Jeru¬ 
salem, which is in bondage with her children,” is to 
be rebuilt: that the Jews, as Jews, are yet to become 
a very conspicuous and honorable people, and certain 
great and precious promises of God’s word are taken 
from the children of the kingdom, the household of 
faith, and are applied especially to the Jews. To 
that infidel, stiff-necked, rebellious race, whose fathers 
rejected the Messiah, clamoring for his life, saying, 
“ let his blood be on us and our children,” whose sons 
still declare that Christ was an impostor, and they 
hate him with a deadly hate, and would be glad to 
blot out his gospel from under heaven. 

This doctrine has crept into the Christian church 
in connexion with the doctrine of a coming day of 
peace for the church in this world. It is old Juda¬ 
ism revived, claiming that the promise of the inheri¬ 
tance is still to be fulfilled in the flesh, the same error 
which doomed their fathers to perdition in the days 


220 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


of the Saviour. It looks back beyond Christ to pro¬ 
mises given the fathers, exalting itself above the 
cross, creating an aristocracy in religion, claiming 
special favor to certain men after the flesh, to Jews, 
though they be ever so infidel. 

But in-the text before us, Paul, himself a Jew, under 
the Spirit of inspiration, thoroughly renounces this 
Judaism ; for ever cutting off special promises or 
favor to any man, or class of men after the flesh. 
“ Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the 
flesh : yea, though we have known Christ after the 
flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.” 

The apostle comes to this sweeping conclusion 
against Judaism from a very important fact which he 
had just stated in a preceding verse; “ Because we 
thus judge, if one died for all, then were all dead 
that is, Jews as well as Gentiles ; “ for God hath 
concluded them all in unbelief.” And if Jews as well 
as Gentiles are alike dead in trespasses and sin with¬ 
out Christ, they all alike stand in need of the atoning 
blood of Christ to make them alive ; there are there¬ 
fore no covenants, promises, blessings, or privileges 
to the Jews more than to Gentiles under the gospel 
dispensation. 

Before the coming of Christ there were certain 
promises to the Jews, the descendants of Abraham 
after the flesh; many advantages, says an apostle, 
“ chiefly because unto them were committed the ora¬ 
cles of God.” Also Christ was to be a Jew according 
to the flesh. He himself said to the Samaritan 
woman, “ salvation is of the Jews.” 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


221 


But all the special promises to them as Jews were 
fulfilled with the promised seed, and they terminated 
in Christ, who “abolished in his flesh the enmity, 
even the law of commandments contained in ordi¬ 
nances : for to make in himself of twain (Jews and 
Gentiles) one new man, so making peace. And that 
he might reconcile both (Jews and Gentiles) unto 
God in one body by the cross, having slain the 
enmity thereby.”—Eplies. ii. 15, 16. 

Thus we see that one common and only do6r of 
salvation is opened alike to all classes without any 
distinction according to the flesh ; that strangers, 
aliens, and foreigners are introduced into the com¬ 
monwealth of Israel, and made “fellow-citizens with 
the saints, and of the household of God.” Whoever 
therefore would preach the free, the pure uncontami¬ 
nated gospel of Christ, as did the apostle, will hold 
out no Judaism mixed up with the gospel, no special 
promises to one class of sinners more than to 
another ; he will make no distinction after the flesh. 

Such an impartial free gospel to all classes was 
exceedingly obnoxious to the proud aristocratic feel¬ 
ings of the Jews, who had arrogated to themselves 
the fulfilment of all the covenants and promises 
shadowed forth through the law and proclaimed by 
the prophets, notwithstanding the prophets had fore¬ 
told a free gospel to the whole world ; saying, “ Ho, 
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and 
he that hath no money ; come ye.” 

True, the law of Moses gave the Jews a decided 
preference over even a Gentile convert, but it was 


222 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


designed only to shadow forth the blessings of the 
true believer under the gospel dispensation; of 
whom Christ said, “ unto you it is given to know the 
mysteries of the kingdom, but unto those that are 
without, these things are done in parables.” 

John the Baptist, one of the purest of God’s minis¬ 
tering servants, who had not been educated under 
the. corrupting traditions of the Doctors and Rabbis, 
but had by himself drawn from the pure teachings 
of the law and prophets, through the aid of the Holy 
Spirit, the uncontaminated truth, raised his voice 
against this arrogating, selfish, hereditary teaching, 
as soon as he began to preach. When he saw these 
Judaizers, who claimed promises after the flesh, 
coming to his baptism, instead of calling them 
“ God’s ancient covenant people,” he said unto them, 
“ 0 generation of vipers, who hath warned you to 
flee from the wrath to come ? Bring forth therefore 
fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say 
within yourselves, we have Abraham to our father : 
for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to 
raise up children unto Abraham,” Matt. iii. 7-9. 
John would teach them that God would, sooner than 
show favor to them on account of their descent, raise 
up the stones of the field to become the children of 
Abraham. But in modern times, gospel ministers 
teach that the descendants of those “ vipers ,” of whom 
John spake, are “ God’s ancient covenant people , Israel 
and that God has special promises for them on. 
account of their descent. 

John further said to them, “now also the axe is 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


223 


laid at the root of the trees : therefore every tree 
which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, 
and cast into the fire.” Those Judaizing trees, 
nourished in the schools of the doctors, withered 
before John’s sharp axe of truth. And when Christ 
began to preach he cut Judaism in pieces. John viii. 
30-44. “Then said Jesus to those Jews which 
believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are 
ye my disciples indeed ; and ye shall know the truth, 
and the truth shall make you free.” Christ per¬ 
ceived that there was Judaism hanging about these 
professed converts, and unless it was cut away they 
could never be the free sons of the gospel. “ They 
answered him, we be Abraham’s seed, and were never 
in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, ye shall be 
made free ?” 

They looked back to promises and blessings 
through Abraham, therefore they could not take 
Christ as their only Saviour. 

“ Jesus answered them, verily, verily, I say unto 
you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, 
and the servant abideth not in the house for ever, 
but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall 
make you free, ye shall be free indeed. I know that 
ye are Abraham’s seed ; but ye seek to kill me, 
because my word hath no place in you. I speak 
that which I have seen with my Father : and ye do 
that which ye have seen with your father.” 

Christ was addressing “ those Jews who believed 
on him.” And if converts under his preaching were 
not considered genuine, because they held to cove- 


224 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


nants and promises through Abraham, all hope of 
which he sought to cut off, how can he accept of 
modern converts among the Jews who are taught to 
believe in covenants and promises through Abraham ? 
No wonder so few Jews are converted under such 
preaching. It flatters the pride of their hearts, and 
says that, according to Christian teachers , aliens and 
strangers are not to be made exactly fellow-citizens 
with them. 

Again, “ They answered and said unto him, Abra¬ 
ham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were 
Abraham’s children ye would do the works of Abra¬ 
ham.” 

Thus our Lord rejected the natural descendants of 
Abraham from being the children of Abraham on the 
account of their descent, and made the doing the 
works of Abraham the condition of being his chil¬ 
dren. But the unbelieving infidel Jews, who hate 
Jesus Christ, and abhor his gospel, we are taught in 
these modern times to believe are “ God’s ancient co¬ 
venant people, Israelbut when they claimed Abra¬ 
ham to be their father, Christ replied to them, “Ye 
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your 
father ye will do.” 

How offensive must it be in the sight of Him, who 
while on earth thus cut off every vestige of hope 
to the Jews through Abraham or the fathers, and 
would have them look to no other hope but to Him, 
the Son, to be made free, as every other sinner must 
look, if they are ever made free indeed—how offen¬ 
sive must it be to Him now to see his professed fol- 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


225 


lowers claiming and teaching that there are some 
special promises to them as the natural seed of Abra¬ 
ham not held out to other sinners; thus assisting 
those proud haters of his gospel to build again that 
“middle wall of partition” which he has broken 
down upon the cross. 

This Judaism is intimately connected with the tem¬ 
poral millennium, to sustain which, they would even 
build again that “ middle wall of partition” between 
Jews and Gentiles which Christ has broken down. 
Ezekiel says, xiii. 10-16 : “ Because, even because 
they have seduced my people, saying, Peace, and 
there was no peace ; and one built up a wall, and lo, 
others daubed it with untempered mortar ; say unto 
them which daub it with untempered mortar, that it 
shall fall. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not 
be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith 
ye have daubed it ? Therefore, thus saith the Lord 
God : I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my 
fury ; and there shall be an overflowing shower in 
mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury, to con¬ 
sume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have 
daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down 
to the ground, so that the foundations thereof shall 
be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be con¬ 
sumed in the midst thereof; and ye shall know that 
I am the Lord. Thus will I accomplish my wrath 
upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it 
with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, the 
wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; to wit, 
the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning 
10 * 


226 


THE SAINTS 7 INHERITANCE. 


Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, 
and there is no peace, saith the Lord God. 77 

That these sayings of the prophet were in a pri¬ 
mary sense to be applied to the peace teachers of his 
day is no doubt true. But that they are applicable 
to the gospel or last days is equally true. First, 
from the fact that the prophet charges these teachers 
in the 5th verse with not having prepared “ the house 
of Israel to stand in the battle in the day of the 
Lord ; 77 and further, from its appropriateness, “ Vi¬ 
sions of peace for her (Jerusalem), and there is no 
peace saith the Lord God. 77 But to whatever age 
the prophet alluded, whoever proclaims visions of 
peace for Jerusalem contradicts his teaching. “ There 
is no peace, saith the Lord God. 77 

God has also declared by the prophet Jeremiah 
that old Jerusalem shall never be rebuilt. Jer. xix. 
The prophet is told to “ go and get a potter’s earthen 
bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and 
the ancients of the priests; and go forth unto the 
valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry 
of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I 
shall tell thee. And say, hear ye the word of the 
Lord, 0 kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jeru¬ 
salem; thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of 
Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the 
which whoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 77 

After enumerating their sins he proceeds, “ And I 
will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem 
in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the 
sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


227 


that seek their lives ; and their carcases will I give 
to be meat for the fowls of the heaven and for the 
beasts of the earth. And I will make this city deso¬ 
late and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby 
shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues 
thereof. And I will cause them to eat the flesh of 
their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they 
shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege 
and straitness wherewith their enemies, and they that 
seek their lives, shall straiten them.” This terrible 
calamity came upon them fully, when the Romans 
destroyed Jerusalem, about forty years after Christ’s 
time on earth. Now observe the following, and see 
if Jerusalem will ever be rebuilt, “Then shalt thou 
break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with 
thee. And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord 
of hosts : Even so will I break this people and this 
city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel that cannot be 
made whole again.” 

Jesus repeats the same prophecy to the Jews in his 
day, but they would not believe him any more than 
their fathers did the humble prophet. 

“ And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with 
armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. 
Then let them which are in Judea flee to the moun¬ 
tains ; and let them which are in the midst of it 
depart out; and let not them which are in the coun¬ 
tries enter thereinto. For these be the days of ven¬ 
geance, that all things which are written may be ful¬ 
filled.For there shall be great distress in the 

land, and wrath upon this people. And they shall 



228 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


fall by the edge of the. sword, and shall be led away 
captive into all nations : and Jerusalem shall be 
trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the 
Gentiles be fulfilled.”—Luke xxi. 20-24. 

Here Jesus repeats the prophecy of Jeremiah, and 
declares that “ Jerusalem should be trodden down of 
the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be ful¬ 
filled.” Therefore, while probation continues, Jeru¬ 
salem cannot be rebuilt. 

If there is a present prospect of the Jews being 
restored to Jerusalem through Rothschild, or any 
other source, then Gentiles had better prepare for 
judgment; for Christ’s word for it, that before it can 
be accomplished Gentiles’ times will be fulfilled. 
How can men who believe this plain declaration of 
Christ still teach that the Jews, after they are 
restored to Jerusalem, will take part in spreading the 
gospel to the Gentiles ? What can the gospel do for 
a people after their times have expired ? 

Again, Isaiah says, lxv. 11-15, that God has cut 
off the Jews as such, and utterly rejected them from 
being his people, and that no promises remain for 
them but such as are for other sinners. 

“ But ye are they that forsake the Lord, that forget 
my holy mountain, that prepare a table for that 
troop, and that furnish the drink-offering unto that 
number. Therefore will I number you to the sword, 
and ye shall bow down to the slaughter : because 
when I called, ye did not answer ; when I spake ye 
did not hear ; but did evil before mine eyes, and did 
choose that wherein I delighted not. Therefore, 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


*229 


thus saitli the Lord God, Behold, my servants shall 
eat, but ye shall be hungry ; behold, my servants 
shall drink, but ye shall be thirsty ; behold, my 
servants shall rejoice, but ye shall be ashamed ; 
behold, my servants shall sing for joy of heart, but 
ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and shall howl for 
vexation of spirit. And ye shall leave your name 
for a curse unto my chosen : for the Lord God shall 
.slay thee, and call his servants by another name.” 

God says lie will slay them and call his servants 
by another name; “ The disciples were first called 
Christians at Antioch.” Not only does God utterly 
reject them, but he even refuses, to call his servants 
by their name ; and says, “ ye shall leave your name 
as a curse unto my chosen.” 

This proud, arrogating, selfish Judaism destroyed 
the Jewish church, and will it prove anything but a 
curse to those who embrace and revive it ? To pray 
for the Jews, as you would for other sinners, and to 
send missionaries among them who would hold out to 
them such promises only as should be preached to all 
sinners, would be a good work, and no doubt accept¬ 
able to God. But to teach that “ they are God’s 
ancient covenant people, the Jews,” and to pray for 
them as such, is to build again that “ middle wall of 
partition” which Christ has broken down upon the 
cross; it is to build a ladder for them “ to climb 
up another way” into the kingdom of God ; and must, 
as God has said, prove a curse to his chosen. Beware 
therefore, how you build again this “ wall, and daub 
it with untempered mortar;” lest when God shall 


230 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


“bring it down so that the foundation thereof be 
discovered, ye be consumed in the midst thereof,” 
as God has said ; and so their name prove a curse to 
you, who claim to be his chosen. 

But we are told “that God has kept them a 
separate and distinct people, that he may restore 
them some future day.” 

We reply, that there have been as many of them 
converted to Christianity during the gospel dispensa¬ 
tion as of the Gentiles, in proportion to their num¬ 
bers ; and when they have thus complied with God’s 
righteous requirements in believing on the Lord 
Jesus Christ, they have at once lost their distinctive 
nationality ; showing clearly that if they would obey 
God, they would be no longer a distinct people. 
The argument would be equally as good in favor of 
Mahometans. 

The men who make this argument would think 
themselves worthy of scorn, if they should undertake 
to claim that God had in reserve some special favor 
for the Mahometans, because they have been kept a 
separate and distinct people through following the 
teachings of the false prophet, Mahomet; yet the 
argument would be just as good. The fact that Jews 
when converted to Christianity at once amalgamate 
with Christians, and they twain are made one through 
the cross of Christ, is full evidence that their infidelity 
has kept them a distinct people. They had rather be 
distinct and serve the devil, than to lose their nation¬ 
ality and serve Christ; as Jesus said to them : “ Ye 
are of your father, the devil, and the lusts of your 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


231 


father ye will do.” Men do not use such weak argu¬ 
ments when better ones can be found. 

But it is said “that God has foretold that they 
would be a separate and distinct people.” Yery 
well; is that an evidence that he approves it ? He 
has also foretold the most horrible wicked acts of 
other men. Is that an evidence that he designs to 
show them special favors ? 

The word of God is harmonious, therefore no other 
parts can contradict these plain declarations ; and 
we have seen that God is very jealous for his glory, 
and would sooner raise up the stones of the field to 
become his children, than to hold out covenants, or 
promises, or hope to a Jew, or to any other class of 
sinners, in any other way than by coming directly to 
his Son; and therefore whoever thinks before God 
of any special promises for a Jew, that are not for all 
sinners, demeans the cross, and dishonors the Lord 
Jesus Christ, by seeking to restore a distinction 
which Christ has put away by the shedding of his 
own most precious blood. 

But as it is claimed by some that Paul teaches in 
the 11th chapter of Romans, that the Jews according 
to the flesh will be restored to old Jerusalem, we will 
examine what the Apostle says there on the subject. 
The chapter commences with “ I say, then, hath God 
cast away his people ? God forbid. For I also am 
an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham^ of the tribe of 
Benjamin.” 

Therefore it was evident that notwithstanding the 
Apostle had in the previous chapter shown them that 


232 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


the Jews under the Gospel dispensation were reduced 
to a level with the Gentiles, that now to be a Jew 
they must be one inwardly, “ for he is not a Jew who 
is one outwardly,” that all were alike, Jews and 
Gentiles, dead in trespasses and sins, “ God having 
concluded them all in unbelief ;” yet they were not 
so cast off that there was no salvation for them, pro¬ 
viding they would give up all other hope, and come 
directly to Christ as Paul had ; for he was a Jew, 
and had obtained salvation. Therefore he says, 
“ God hath not cast away his people which he fore¬ 
knew. Wot ye not what the Scripture saith of Elias ? 
how he maketh intercession against Israel, saying, 
Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and digged 
down thine altars ; and I am left alone, and they 
seek my life. But what saith the answer of God unto 
him ? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men 
who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.” 

The apostle adds, “ Even so then at this present 
time also there is a remnant according to the election 
of grace.” Himself, the disciples, and many other 
had believed, and were among the chosen, so that 
there was still hope for those who would embrace 
Christ. 

In the 11th verse he comes more especially to the 
subject before us, and says, “1 say then, have they 
stumbled that they should fall ? God forbid : but 
rather through their fall salvation is come unto the 
Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy.” 

The error which has led to Judaism undoubtedly 
has in a great measure grown out of the misunder- 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


233 


standing of what that fall of the Jews was, of which 
the Apostle speaks in this verse. 

A certain minister while pleading before a Chris¬ 
tian church for aid to send the Gospel among the 
Jews, after repeating this text, said, “ Gentile Chris¬ 
tians ought to pay liberally to sustain the Gospel among 
the Jews, because through the Jews having rejected 
Christ the Gospel was extended to the Gentiles.” 

This conclusion was correct, if the common exposi¬ 
tion is right; and if so, we should not only be liberal 
in sending the Gospel among them, but they should 
also have the praise of our salvation. .Such would 
be the consequence of the error fully carried out. 

But the fall to which the apostle alludes in this 
verse was not their rejecting Christ, for in re¬ 
jecting Christ they stumbled, says not only Paul, 
but Peter, and Christ also; but in the fall to which 
the apostle in this verse alludes, they did not stum¬ 
ble that they should fall; “ God forbid,” or by no 
means, says the apostle. 

Paul in this epistle had already shown their com¬ 
mon level with the Gentiles under the Gospel dispen¬ 
sation, so that he anticipates their inquiry, “ What 
advantage then hath a Jew ?” He answers, “ Much 
every way ; chiefly because unto them were committed 
the oracles of God.” 

The Messiah was to be a Jew, “ of whom concern¬ 
ing the flesh Christ came, who is over all (Jews and 
Gentiles) God, blessed for ever. Amen.” He was 
to be known while in the flesh as the seed of Abra¬ 
ham. Jesus says himself “ salvation is of the Jews.” 


234 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


But his most precious blood was shed, it was poured 
out as an offering for the world not to be taken up 
again. By this act their natural or blood relation¬ 
ship was cut off, and all their special services ended 
with the tabernacle, which was but the figure of the 
true ; and all peculiar promises according to the flesh 
terminated with the promised Seed on the cross, 
which let the Jews down, or “ fall,” to a common 
level with the Gentiles. There was no stumbling of 
the Jews in this. 

The apostle in our text says, “ we have known 
Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know 
we him no more.” Now,- he says we know no 
man, not even Christ, after the flesh, the condition 
of brotherhood being alike to all through the Spirit. 
“Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is 
none of his.” The Jews therefore in this fall, did 
not stumble that they should fall; but they were 
provoked to jealousy. And now, what have we to 
thank the Jews for ? Nothing ; unless for being 
jealous and mad because the Gentiles were permitted 
to enjoy alike with themselves the blessings and 
covenants and promises of God. 

“ I say then have they stumbled that they should 
fall ? God forbid ; but rather through their fall sal¬ 
vation is come unto the Gentiles.” That is the 
dropping of them on a level with the Gentiles, accom¬ 
plished on the cross by the pouring out of Christ’s 
blood, has brought salvation to the Gentiles. This 
view the apostle confirms in the next verse. “Now 
if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


235 


diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how 
much more their fulness ?” 

Their fall which was accomplished by the atone¬ 
ment through which salvation has flowed to the world, 
the true riches of the world. “ The diminishing of 
them,’ 7 or as the margin reads, their loss, is “ the 
riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fulness ?” 
If the Jews generally could have been induced to 
embrace Christ the world would have been still more 
enriched. Their unbelief has been a terrible stum¬ 
bling-block to the world. 

“ For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the 
apostle of the Gentiles I magnify mine office; if by 
any means I may provoke to emulation them which 
are my flesh, and might save some of them. For if 
the casting away of them be the reconciling of the 
world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life 
from the dead.” 

The apostle does not hold out the idea that the 
Jews generally would be saved, but “if by any means 
I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh 
and might save some of them.” 

“ If the casting away of them.” If the setting of 
them back on a common level with the Gentiles, by 
ending the ceremonial law, “ which could not make 
him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the 
conscience; which stood only in meats and drinks, 
and divers washings and carnal ordinances, imposed 
on them until the time of reformation,” until Christ 
should come, “ be the reconciling of the world ;” be 
the means of the gospel of reconciliation being 


236 


THE SAINTS INHERITANCE. 


preached to the world; “ What shall the receiving 
of them be but life from the dead ?” That is,, if the 
apostle could by “ any means” prevail on these Jews 
thus cast away, dead in trespasses and sins as Gen¬ 
tiles, to embrace Christ, what shall the receiving of 
them be but life from the dead ?” And now, we ask, 
does this look like the restoring of the Jews? Far 
from it; but the apostle knowing the many strong 
declarations against the Jews, because of their wicked 
unbelief, and lest the Gentiles should boast and think 
the Jews entirely set aside for them, he argues that 
they being on a common level, special efforts might 
also save some of the Jews. 

Having cautioned the Gentiles in a most effectual 
manner not to boast, the apostle proceeds in the 
25th verse, “ For I would not. brethren, that ye should 
be ignorant of this mystery (lest ye should be wise 
in your own conceits), that blindness in part is hap¬ 
pened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be 
come in.” 

If this verse proves that the Jews will be restored, 
it also proves that they will remain blind “ until the 
fulness of the Gentiles be come in;” which is fatal to 
the whole theory ; for that theory makes the Jews 
take a conspicuous part in carrying the gospel to the 
Gentiles. Thus that teaching which offers special 
favor to Jews, ends Gentile probation. Now then, 
as “ the fulness of the Gentiles” will not be accom¬ 
plished till the end of the world, what does this verse 
teach, but that part of the Jews will remain blinded 
till the day of judgment reveals the terrible truth 


JEWS AS JEWS REJECTED. 


237 


that they have been hating the true Messiah, and 
despising the gospel of the Son of God? Now the 
apostle says, 26th verse, “So all Israel shall be 
saved : as it is written, there shall come out of Zion 
the deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from 
Jacob.” 

This also proves too much, for that theory ; for if 
the “ all Israel” means the carnal Jews, then it proves 
the salvation of every infidel Jew, concerning some 
of whom Christ said, “ I go away and ye shall seek 
me, and shall die in your sins : whither I go ye 
cannot come.” How fearfully true Christ’s words 
have proved to that devoted race 1 They rejected 
the true Messiah, and have sought and sought in 
vain for one yet to come, and have died in despair. 

Though the apostle has used the name Israel in 
speaking of the Jews as a nation, yet he denied them 
the right to it only in a nominal sense, and claims 
the name Israel as appropriate only to true believers; 
saying, “ For they are not all Israel, which are of 
Israel.” 

Give Paul’s own definition to Israel , and there is 
no difficulty ; and unless we do, we make him contra¬ 
dict himself, for he applied the following words to 
some of them : “ Let their eyes be darkened, that 
they may not see, and bow down their back always.” 
“ But as it is written his quotation from the 
prophet clearly confirms this application of the name 
Israel. Isaiah lix. 20 : “ And the Redeemer shall 
come to Zion, and unto them that turn from trans¬ 
gression in Jacob, saith the Lord.” Jesus said to 


238 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


Ms disciples, who had “ turned from transgression in 
Jacob,” and through them to all true believers, “ I 
will come again and receive you unto myself.” 

Yes, they all, the true Israel, shall be saved, even 
from the consequences of sin, and shall be redeemed 
from the grave. 

27th verse : “ For this is my covenant with them 
when I shall take away their sins;” this is the 
covenant with all those who believe on Jesus, and 
their sins are taken away, or forgiven; “ and this 
is the Father’s will which hath sent me, that of all 
which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but 
should raise it up again at the last day.” 

In such a restoration of Israel we most firmly 
believe; that is, of Paul’s true Israel, of all true 
believers. But not to old Jerusalem; for she is 
doomed, cast out; “ in bondage with her children ;” 
but to a “ city to come,” to the “ holy city, new 
Jerusalem,” which John saw “coming down from 
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for 
her husband,” and to that heavenly country promised 
to Abraham. “ For the promise that he should be 
the heir of the world was not to Abraham, or to his 
seed, through the law, but through the righteousness 
of faith.” “ Wherefore, henceforth know we no man 
after the flesh.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 


THE HOUSE OF MANSIONS ABOVE—THE HOLY CITY TO 
COME. 

“For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to 
come.”—H eb. xiii. 14. 

In this mortal state our cities rise, and as quickly 
fall ; our habitations are consumed, and they vanish 
away. We build houses and others inhabit them ; 
we plant vineyards and others eat the fruit of them. 
“ The earth and the heavens,” the atmosphere about 
the earth, “ they all shall wax old as doth a garment, 
and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they 
shall be changed.” 

But the heavens and the earth, and the holy city 
which is to come, shall be permanent; for so has God 
promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not the 
earth only but also heaven. And this word, yet 
once more, signifieth the removing of those things that 
are shaken, as of things that are made, that those 
things which cannot be shaken may remain. Where¬ 
fore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, 
let us have grace whereby we may serve God accept¬ 
ably with reverence and godly fear.”—Heb. xii. 
26 - 28 . 

Though old Jerusalem is cast out in bondage with 
her children, eternally doomed, yet there is a city to 
come, a new Jerusalem which is above and free. In 


240 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


it there are many mansions. " In my Father’s house 
there are many mansions, if it were not so I would 
have told you.” 

But this holy city is to come down upon the earth. 
This was the apostle’s faith, “ but we seek one to 
come,” and of its coming down John had a glorious 
sight, Rev. xxi. “ And I John saw the holy city, 
new Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven 
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” 
Jesus said, “ I go to prepare a place for you.” Yes, 
Christ has prepared it most gloriously ; in the very 
best, “ prepared as a bride adorned for her husband .” 

Not a rebuilding of Jerusalem, but a coming down 
from God out of heaven. It is of heavenly origin ; 
it is of unmingled purity : it is the holy city. The 
reading of the record of its glory fills the soul with 
holy melody. Being of heavenly origin, its beauty 
is unfading ; an eternal excellency, a glory in all the 
earth. And after John has given so magnificent a 
description he fails to tell its glory, for it is conse¬ 
crated with the presence and glory of God. 

“ And I heard a great voice out of heaven, saying, 
Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and he 
will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, 
and God himself shall be with them, and be their 
God.” 

Not man carried away to dwell with God, but his 
tabernacle is with men ; as of old in Paradise, God 
walked and talked with our first parents, so now, in 
humanity glorified, in the person of our Lord Jesus 
Christ; “ for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the 


THE HOLY CITY TO COME. 


241 


Godhead bodily;”he shall be with his people, and 
they shall behold his glory. 

“ And God shall wipe away all tears from their 
eyes ; and there shall be no more death ; neither sor¬ 
row nor crying ; neither shall there be any more 
pain : for the former things are passed away.” 

This verse assures us that it is in the immortal 
state, beyond the time of sorrow, pain, and death. 
Here in this mortal state, decay, disease, waste, and 
death, wither all about us. Blessed promise! There 
shall be no more pain, sorrow, or death. His peo¬ 
ple quickened by the life-giving power of the Spirit, 
they shall be filled with immortal vigor and energy. 
Death, that mighty agent which has carried all 
before it for these six thousand years, shall be 
destroyed. “ There shall be no more death.” 

“ And he that sat upon the throne said, behold, I 
make all things new. And he said unto me write, 
for these things are true and faithful.” 

Not all new things made, but “ behold! I make 
all things new.” The earth is not to be annihilated; 
it is to be made new and glorious as the garden of 
God. This scene is not to be understood symboli¬ 
cally, for “ he said unto me write, for these words 
are true and faithful.” That is, they are not symbols 
to represent something else : they are literally true, 
and shall be fulfilled just as God showed them unto 
his servant John. This is the city which has founda¬ 
tions. “ And the wall of the city had twelve 
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve 
apostles of the Lamb.” 


11 


242 


THE SAINTS’ INHERITANCE. 


This is the city for which Abraham looked. “ For 
he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose 
builder and maker is God.” This is the house into 
which Paul expected to enter when his body should 
be dissolved by death. “ For we know that if our 
earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we 
have a building of God, an house not made with 
hands, eternal in the heavens.” 

Not eternally in the heavens, as some would have 
it, but an eternal house, now in the heavens, being 
gloriously prepared by our Lord, that he may bring 
it down to grace the renovated earth, as the capital 
of his coming glorious and everlasting kingdom. 
It is evident Paul understood that the eternal house, 
now in the heavens, would come down on the earth, 
for he adds, in the next verse, “ For in this we groan, 
earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our 
house which is from heaven.”—2 Cor. v. 1, 2. 

“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” 
This is “ the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, 
and not man.” Blessed prophecy! The Lord shall 
come down to tabernacle with men, and they shall walk 
in the light of his countenance, and behold his glory, 
and listen to the accents of kindness that shall fall 
in soft and soothing melody from his lips. His own 
prayer shall be answered : “ Father, I will that they 
also whom thou hast given me be with me where I 
am ; that they may behold my glory which thou hast 
given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation 
of the world.” 

This is the Paradise of which Jesus spoke, while 


THE HOLY CITY TO COME. 


243 


bearing our sins in his own body on the cross ; into 
which he said the penitent thief should enter. It is 
then not only a city, but a garden; in it is the tree 
of life ; it is the Paradise of God. Many things join 
to make this Eternal City of the Great King, the 
joy of the whole earth. The tree of life is now in 
Paradise, in the holy city which is above : “He that 
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto 
the churches : To him that overcometh will I give 
to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of 
the Paradise of God.” And it shall also be upon 
the earth again when the new Jerusalem comes down. 

As of old there was in the midst of the garden of 
Eden the tree of life, “ and a river went out of 
Eden to water the garden,” so John says of the 
Paradise to come, the new Jerusalem. “And he 
showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and 
of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and 
on either side of the river, was there the tree of 
life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded 
her fruit every month :” “ For the Lamb which is in 
the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall 
lead them unto living fountains of waters.” Feed 
them! Yes ; he will feed the eye with beauty, and 
the ear with music, the mind with knowledge, and 
the heart with love. This is no imaginary scene : 
it is His word which has hitherto been fulfilled to 
the letter. As originally “ the Lord made to grow 
every tree that is pleasant to the sight,” so these 
literal glories on which our eyes have been accus- 


244 


THE SAINTS' INHERITANCE. 


tomed to look in tlieir degenerate state, shall glow 
with immortal beauty, more glorious than when 
originally created. The Great King while in the 
flesh was an admirer of the flowers of the field, and 
declared, “ that Solomon, in all his glory, was not 
arrayed like one of these." Shall not He who thus 
admired them, deck the earth again with their 
beauty, and fill it with their fragrance ? 

For a description of the Holy City, we refer the 
reader to those high and lofty thoughts, to those me¬ 
lodious words penned by John, the fisherman of the 
lake of Gennesareth, who had been accustomed to 
lean on the bosom of its Great King ; and whose 
name shall be set in glorious gems, in one of the 
twelve foundations of the Holy City. 

This Holy City, this Paradise of God, will far sur¬ 
pass the original Paradise ; so also does its Lord and 
King far surpass, beyond comparison, the first Adam. 
No Serpent there to tempt its inhabitants ; they shall 
never be driven from it; its duration is eternal, its 
guardian Omnipotence, 

Then shall come the kingdom of our God, and the 
glory of his reign. “And I heard as it were the 
voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many 
waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, say¬ 
ing, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reign 
eth." Then shall have come the restitution spoken 
of by all the holy prophets since the world began ; 
and the “ whole earth shall be filled with the glory 
of the Lord." 

Then shall be fulfilled as Daniel has seen in holy 


THE HOLY CITY TO COME. 


245 


vision, “the kingdom and dominion, and the great¬ 
ness of the kingdom under the whole heaven shall be 
given to the people of thS saints of the Most High, 
whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all 
dominions shall serve and obey him.” 

Then shall be fulfilled the promises of the gospel 
covenant. His people shall have returned to Zion 
with songs of praise and everlasting joy upon their 
heads ; and “ they shall teach no more every man his 
neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know 
the Lord ; for they shall all know me, from the least 
of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; 
for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their 
sins no more.” 

Then shall his people “ go out with joy, and be led 
forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall 
break forth before them into singing, and all the 
trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of 
the thorn shall come up the fir-tree; instead of the 
briar shall come up the myrtle-tree ; and it shall be 
to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that 
shall not be cut off.” 

Then shall “ the wilderness and the solitary place 
be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and 
blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, 
and rejoice even with joy and singing ; the glory of 
Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of 
Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the 
Lord, and the excellency of our God.” 

The whole family of the redeemed, from Abel to 
the last soul saved all immortal with that command- 


246 


THE SAINTS* INHERITANCE. 


ment upon which “ hang all the law and the pro¬ 
phets/* that universal law of God, with which he 
governs all holy intelligences, the law of love, fully 
written in their hearts, which shall for ever unite 
them to their common Lord, and to all holy beings. 

Something of the beauty and glory of the King 
may be learned by the description John has given in 
the first chapter of Revelation. He says, he saw 
“ the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to 
the foot, and girt with a golden girdle. His head 
and his hairs were white like wool, as white as 
snow ; and his eyes were as a flame of fire ; and his 
feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a 
furnace; . . . and his countenance was as the sun 
shineth in his strength.** 

Though John was accustomed to lean on Jesus* 
bosom while he was in the flesh, he is now overcome 
with his glory, like the three disciples who saw his 
glory in the holy mount. He says, “ when I saw 
him I fell at his feet as dead.” The eyes of flesh 
and blood could not behold such glory. 

But Jesus, though thus glorified, retains all that 
love and tenderness of heart which he had while on 
earth. “ This was that disciple whom Jesus loved.** 
John says, “ He laid his right hand upon me, saying 
unto me, fear not; I am the first and the last; I am 
he. that liveth and was dead ; and behold, I am alive 
for evermore, Amen ; and have the keys of hell and 
of death.** 

This is the description of one who saw his glory. 
And this same disciple says, “ It does not yet appear 


THE HOLY CITY TO COME. 


247 


what we shall be, but we know that when he shall 
appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as 
he is.” Look upon the sun in its strength and then 
think of the King with the multitude of his redeemed 
thus shining as the sun in his strength, in that 
glorious kingdom. 

“ And the city had no need of the sun, neither of 
the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did 
lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.” 

Isaiah, whose lips had been touched with hallowed 
fire, was permitted a vision of the glory of Christ's 
kingdom in the renovated earth, and he said, “ Then 
the moon shall be confounded, and the sun ashamed, 
when the Lord of hosts shall reign in Mount Zion, 
and in Jerusalem, and before his ancients gloriously.” 

Thus have we seen that the Bible opens with the 
unfallen glories of the creation, put in subjection to 
man, who was then in the image of his Maker ; and 
although man has fallen and forfeited his inheritance, 
the Bible closes with the glories of the restitution of 
all things made again the unfading dominion of man, 
not only restored to the image of his God, but the 
very Godhead in humanity, in the person of its Lord 
and King, to be its eternal guardian. 

“ This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, 
and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” 





























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